President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025, into law, ushering in a major transformation in Ghana’s legal education system and officially ending the 66-year monopoly of the Ghana School of Law over professional legal training.
The landmark legislation is expected to significantly widen access to professional legal education by allowing accredited universities and institutions to offer professional law courses, a mandate that had for decades been reserved solely for the Ghana School of Law.
For years, the country’s legal education system has faced intense criticism over what many described as a restrictive and exclusionary structure, particularly regarding admission into the Ghana School of Law. Thousands of qualified LLB graduates were unable to continue their legal training due to limited admission slots and the highly competitive entrance examination process.
Speaking after assenting to the bill on Monday, May 11, President Mahama said the new law seeks not only to maintain high standards in legal education but also to create broader opportunities for aspiring lawyers.
“The law is to regulate legal education and ensure the highest standards in terms of legal education, but also to open up the space for more opportunity for legal education in Ghana. This particular act has been one that many aspiring lawyers have been looking up to,” the president stated.
Under the previous legal framework, the Ghana School of Law remained the only institution authorised to run the Professional Law Course required for qualification and call to the Bar in Ghana. The monopoly, which lasted for more than six decades, repeatedly sparked national debate, with students, civil society organisations, and legal practitioners demanding reforms to make legal education more accessible and less restrictive.
The passage and signing of the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025 is therefore being hailed by many stakeholders as a historic breakthrough that could ease the long-standing bottlenecks in legal training across the country.
With the new law now in force, accredited universities that satisfy the required standards and secure approval from the relevant regulatory authorities will be permitted to run professional legal education programmes, potentially opening the door for thousands more students to pursue careers in law.