Open up professional legal training to law faculties to increase enrolment – Justice Mensah supports proposal

Justice Philip Bright Mensah, a nominee to the Supreme Court, has proposed major changes to Ghana’s legal education system, including allowing accredited law faculties to provide both theoretical and professional legal training.

He made the call on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee during the second day of vetting for nominees to the apex court.

Justice Mensah said the current structure, which restricts professional legal training to the Ghana School of Law [Makola], is not keeping pace with the number of law graduates in the country.

He said the backlog of LLB holders waiting to gain admission into the law school shows the need for practical reforms.

“Some have suggested that the courses offered at the law school should be integrated into the law faculties,” he told the Committee. “That is another way to potentially solve the problem.”

Justice Mensah, who currently serves on the Court of Appeal bench, expressed concern about the pressure on the Ghana School of Law, which he said had not expanded its infrastructure in proportion to the increase in LLB graduates.

“In our time, it was only the University of Ghana offering LLB programmes. Today, many universities offer LLB, yet we haven’t expanded law school facilities proportionately,” he said.

He suggested a policy of “priority admission” for those who have already completed their LLB programmes but remain unable to proceed with professional training.

“Those who have already passed their LLB and are waiting to enter law school could be granted what I call an ‘immunity’, a form of prioritisation, to enter law school, subject to how the General Legal Council implements it,” he said.

Justice Mensah urged the General Legal Council, administrators of the Ghana School of Law, and academic institutions to work together to review the current system.

He said that if university law faculties across the country are accredited to offer the professional component of legal training, it could ease the burden on the centralised system.

He acknowledged that law faculties currently focus on theory but argued that with proper quality checks, they could deliver practical training as well.

“If law faculties have the capacity to offer these professional courses, the responsibility falls to the General Legal Council to ensure quality assurance is applied,” he said.