Chief Justice under fire over 'quality lawyers' comment

The Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has come a under a barrage of criticisms for reiterating her stance that legal education will not be opened up to more people because that will compromise the quality of lawyers trained.

Speaking at the 2019 University of Ghana Alumni Lectures under the theme: “Questing for Excellence”, she argued that Ghana needed quality lawyers not lots of lawyers, repeating for the umpteenth time, her argument that allowing many people to train as lawyers will lead to having bad quality lawyers.

But many have disagreed with her, notably Professor Kwaku Asare, a renowned Lawyer and Professor of Accounting. He wrote in reaction to her comments on Facebook: ” There Ohemaa Sophia goes again with her false dilemma —- “we need good lawyers, not lots of lawyers. Ohemaa, for your information, it is both possible and desirable to produce lots of good lawyers as happens in most countries that value justice. Innovation, technology and strategic thinking easily allow for both high quality and “mass production”!

Cuba is an example of a country that has shown that with proper planning and progressive leadership, a country can mass produce high quality doctors whose services are in high demand worldwide, including in Ghana where we are being told quality lawyers means we must deny thousands of law graduates a mere opportunity to prove that they can pass the Bar examination.

Failed thinking and leadership should not be allowed to coerce us into thinking that only 128 out of 1820 law graduates in this country are qualified to study civil procedure, evidence, legal accounting etc.

128/1820 is a scam and a sham and it will not stand no matter how many times Ohemaa Sophia screams about her remarkably false choice between quality and quantity…”

Many others agree with him and have taken the Chief Justice to the cleaners over the comments.