Kwaku Ansa-Asare, former Director of the Ghana School of Law, has expressed concern that Ghana is producing law graduates who are inadequately prepared for courtroom practice.
The veteran legal educator told the media that the current system is failing to produce practice-ready lawyers.
“We are training lawyers who don’t know how to move a court,” he said bluntly.
His remarks come amid growing debate over the Legal Education Bill, which seeks to reform aspects of the country’s legal training framework.
But for Mr Ansa-Asare, the proposed reforms are fundamentally flawed from the outset, starting with the name of the bill. “In the first place, the title ‘Legal Education Bill’ is a little troubling,” he said.
According to him, the separation of academic and professional legal training has created a dangerous gap that leaves students unprepared for real-world practice.
“Our system is not integrated. For three years, we teach students the academic side—where to find the law, sources of law. Then we dump them into the Ghana School of Law for just two years to learn how to practise. It’s too late,” Mr Ansa-Asare warned.
He argued that this fragmented approach is why so many young lawyers struggle in courtrooms immediately after being called to the Bar.
“You’re taught theory, but no one shows you how to move a motion, how to draft a bail application, how to write an opinion. So, you show up in court and stumble through basic procedures. It’s unfair to the students, and it’s bad for justice delivery.”
Kwaku Ansa-Asare called for a holistic reform that addresses both academic content and practical training, not a half-measure that tackles one and leaves the other for a future generation to fix.
