President John Dramani Mahama has signed the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025 into law, marking a major shift in Ghana’s legal education system and officially ending the Ghana School of Law’s 66-year monopoly on professional legal training.
The new legislation is expected to significantly expand access to professional legal education by allowing accredited universities and institutions to offer professional law courses, a role that had for decades been reserved exclusively for the Ghana School of Law.
For years, concerns have been raised over the restrictive nature of legal education in Ghana, particularly the admission bottlenecks associated with the Ghana School of Law.
Thousands of qualified LLB graduates across the country were often unable to continue their professional legal training due to limited admission spaces and the highly competitive entrance examination process.
Speaking after assenting to the bill on Monday, May 11, President Mahama said the law seeks not only to regulate legal education and maintain high standards, but also to create broader opportunities for aspiring lawyers in Ghana.
“This 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 arrangement, the Ghana School of Law remained the only institution authorized to provide the Professional Law Course required for qualification and call to the Bar in Ghana.
That monopoly, which had existed for more than six decades, became the subject of repeated national debate, with students, civil society organisations, and legal practitioners consistently calling for reforms to make legal education more accessible.
The passage and signing of the Legal Education Reform Bill, 2025, is therefore being hailed as a major breakthrough in addressing longstanding challenges within Ghana’s legal education system.
With the law now in force, accredited universities that satisfy the required standards and obtain approval from the relevant regulatory authorities will be permitted to run professional legal education programmes.
