Private legal practitioner and law lecturer, Thaddeus Sory, has called for the General Legal Council (GLC) to relinquish its control over legal education in Ghana.

He argues that the current arrangement compromises transparency and fairness in the system.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on October 20, Mr. Sory said the GLC’s oversight of both regulation and training has created confusion and suspicion in the process of becoming a lawyer.

He argued that separating the Council’s regulatory duties from the training of law students would bring greater accountability.

“I don’t think it diminishes or takes anything away from the law school,” he said.

“The law school could also still train lawyers, but if we are saying that rather than take or put people from the various universities who come to you and you say they should write an entrance exam and come for an interview and all of that.

"The students you train and those universities from which you push them, let them all write one exam, and let there be an overall body to assess which of them is a lawyer. That’s the bar exam.”

Mr. Sory said the introduction of a national bar exam would be a fairer way to assess all law graduates, instead of using separate entrance exams and interviews controlled by the GLC.

“So let’s all go and write for the bar,” he said. “That’s all, and if you pass it, you pass, and it will take away this whole thing that a group of people sit down and they decide that, 'oh, its Evans Mensah, well, let’s give it to him.”

Mr. Sory’s comments add to the ongoing debate over the structure of legal education in Ghana.

The call for a national bar exam has gained traction in recent years, as many students and practitioners have raised concerns about limited access, perceived bias, and opaque admission processes at the Ghana School of Law.

He said the current system has raised questions about how some individuals are called to the bar despite doubts about their participation in law school.

“You suddenly hear that somebody has been called to the bar, and you are wondering at what point in time that person went through the law school,” he stated.

“Because the person has a schedule which by no miracle the person could have attended that school regularly. And by the policy of the school, which says you must attend a number of lectures and participate in a particular way, no miracle could have allowed that person to do it.

"But yet, they are calling people to the bar. You see the person there. It will take away all of that because, at the end of the day, you have to write a national bar exam.”

Mr. Sory said such a system would help restore public confidence and “allow some transparency.”

He stressed that the General Legal Council should focus on its regulatory duties and not on managing legal education.

“The GLC has a lot of things to do. They should focus on that and leave the school education,” he said.