The Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, has advised students from six senior high schools in Accra to consider pursuing law as their future career. Mrs. Wood, who hosted 90 students from selected schools for a mentoring programme, observed that law was a noble profession which one could not afford to lose the opportunity when offered the chance to study it. Sharing her life experience with them, Mrs. Wood advised them to grab the usefulness of the programme as they interacted with senior lawyers and the judges who were willing to share with them their experience and motivations for them to become high ranking lawyers and judges like herself. The schools privileged to meet these dignitaries were Accra Girl’s, Accra High, St. Mary’s, Labone, Tema, Holy Trinity and Christian Methodist Senior High Schools. The students, with their teachers, received a tour of the courts and the administrative buildings and were exposed to inner workings of the Judiciary. They also received some education on the rule of law and separation of powers from Justice Anin Yeboah, a Supreme Court judge, and also shared the experience of a private Legal Practitioner, Ms. Esine Okudzeto, a barrister and a solicitor. One of the students asked the Chief Justice whether with her position she still sat as a judge, and in response, her ladyship indicated that she did it because she was first and foremost a judge. The mentoring programme was initiated last year by the Chief Justice, under the sponsorship of DANIDA, with the objective of offering students of selected senior high schools the opportunity to interact with members of the bench and bar as well as Judicial Service staff to learn and share their experience. “This objective followed an impromptu visit from a group of proud and excited students from her alma mater, Wesley Girls Senior High School, when she became the first Female Chief Justice in Ghana,” Justice Mrs. Margaret Welbourne Insaidoo, a commercial court judge disclosed. After the visit, “the Chief Justice decided to create a formal mentoring program to encourage students to pursue careers in law through direct interactions with leaders in the legal profession,” she added. The programme which first began with 30 students is also aimed at promoting the rule of law and access to justice as well as to introduce the students, especially girls, to the legal profession and interest them to join the bar. The theme for this year’s event was, “The Role of Judiciary in Governance of Ghana”. According to Justice Mrs. Insaidoo, who gave an overview of the programme to ensure that the exercise was geographically represented, the Judicial Service first started with students from St. Francis Girls, Jirapa, St. Francis Xavier Junior Seminary, Wa, Lawra Senior High and Wa Secondary, last year. She hoped that with time, all the regions in the country would be covered. Source: Daily Guide