The Ghana Law Society has proposed replacing the current post-qualification attachment system with National Service placements for newly trained lawyers.
Under the plan, lawyers would work in district assemblies, Legal Aid offices and courts across Ghana, helping to improve access to legal services beyond the country’s major cities.
Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor, president of the Ghana Law Society, announced the proposal at the Society’s maiden Annual Bar Conference. He said the existing attachment arrangement was not giving many young lawyers the practical experience they needed.
“Six months of attachment has become, for many of our young lawyers, six months of carrying files, photocopying processes, loitering in corridors of courts and now, unpaid, unmentored, unmonitored and uninspired,” he said.
The proposed placements would see some lawyers assigned to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, where they could support legal reviews. Others could be posted to the Legal Aid Commission or district courts.
Dafeamekpor said the change would serve two purposes: giving newly qualified lawyers more meaningful professional training while extending legal assistance to communities that currently have limited access to lawyers.
He said Ghana has fewer than 8,000 lawyers with active practising certificates. He also claimed that more than 190 districts do not have a single law firm.
“This is not a gap. This is a crisis,” he said.
The Ghana Law Society president said turning the existing training period into National Service would also enable young lawyers to receive National Service certificates.
He added that the proposed system would help provide legal services outside Accra and other major urban centres, where the shortage of practising lawyers is most pronounced.
