The Ghana School of Law has announced interim transitional arrangements for the implementation of the Legal Education Act, 2026, following the passage, presidential assent and gazetting of the new law.
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The directives, contained in a letter dated June 12, 2026, were issued by Professor Raymond A. Atuguba, Director of Legal Education and Director of the Ghana School of Law, to Deans of law faculties and schools across Ghana.
According to the letter, the directives were issued on the instruction of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, in consultation with the Chairman of the General Legal Council.
Professor Atuguba said the policy directives were substantially aligned with recommendations made by the Conference of Law Deans at its emergency meeting held on May 13, 2026, on the impending legal education reforms.
He explained that although the Legal Education Act, 2026, has introduced major reforms to legal education in Ghana, particularly the decentralisation of professional legal training to accredited law faculties, the new Council for Legal Education and Training is yet to be constituted.
The letter noted that, given the timing of the new law and the resumption of the next academic year in August/September 2026, there would not be sufficient time for the accreditation of faculties to immediately commence the Law Practice Training Programme under the new regime.
It further stated that Ghana currently has a substantial backlog of LLB graduates awaiting admission into professional legal education. Under the old regime, LLB graduates were required to pass an entrance examination organised by the Independent Examinations Committee before gaining admission to the Ghana School of Law.
According to the Ghana School of Law, about 3,000 to 4,000 LLB graduates sit for the entrance examination annually, but only a fraction obtain admission each year, resulting in an estimated backlog of between 5,000 and 8,000 students.
The transitional arrangements are therefore intended to provide clarity to students graduating with an LLB this year, clarify the pathway for existing backlog students, prepare law faculties for implementation of the new framework, and ensure continuity and stability within legal education during the transition period.
Under the new arrangement, any law faculty accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission may, as an interim measure, seek approval from its Faculty Board, Academic Board or University Council to allow graduating LLB students to remain for an additional academic year.
During the additional year, the students will complete the theoretical courses required to commence professional legal training. The programme will be known as the Pre-Bar Course.
The letter stated that the Pre-Bar Course should include subjects such as Company Law, Commercial Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Family Law, Interpretation of Deeds and Statutes, and other relevant elective subjects that may be required to satisfy minimum credit requirements.
Upon completion, the faculties are expected to issue attestations to students certifying that they have completed the required theoretical courses to qualify them to undertake the Law Practice Training Programme, sit for the National Bar Examinations and be called to the Bar.
Professor Atuguba said the Pre-Bar Course is expected to commence in August/September 2026 and run for only a couple of years. He added that, going forward, law faculties should spread the remaining theoretical courses across the LLB programme so that students would have completed all required courses by the time they graduate.
The Ghana School of Law also stated that faculties unable or unwilling to run the Pre-Bar Course may enter into partnership or offloading arrangements with the Ghana School of Law to enable their students undertake the necessary courses there.
Such arrangements may involve complete offloading of students to the Ghana School of Law for transitional purposes or hybrid arrangements under which faculties run parts of the programme while the Ghana School of Law provides support for the remaining components.
The directive also allows Ghana Tertiary Education Commission-accredited law faculties to admit LLB graduates from other universities or from the existing backlog into the Pre-Bar Course.
For students graduating with an LLB this year, the Ghana School of Law said the pathway to the Bar will be a two-year process. They may undertake the Pre-Bar Course in their university, another accredited university with a law programme, or at the Ghana School of Law.
After successfully completing the Pre-Bar Course, the students may proceed the following academic year to the Law Practice Training Programme in any university accredited by the Council for Legal Education and Training.
The courses to be taught under the Law Practice Training Programme include Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Law of Evidence, Conveyancing and Drafting, Advocacy and Legal Ethics, and Law Practice Management and Legal Accounting.
For the backlog of LLB graduates, the directive stated that they do not fall within the category of âexisting studentsâ protected under the transitional provisions of the new law. As a result, they will be required to comply with the new structure once admitted into professional legal training.
However, in light of Section 90 of the new Act, which repeals Regulations 1 to 22 of L.I. 2355, the letter stated that the Independent Examinations Committee and the entrance examination regime for admission into professional legal training have been abolished.
Consequently, admission into the new professional legal training framework may no longer be made dependent on any entrance examination conducted by the Independent Examinations Committee.
Backlog students seeking to enter the new system may apply to any law programme accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to undertake the Pre-Bar Course or apply to the Ghana School of Law for the same programme.
Admissions will be determined by the respective institutions in line with their internal academic rules, admission policies, capacity considerations and applicable regulatory requirements.
The directive further stated that, during the transition period, accreditation processes for law faculties will commence to ensure that by the 2027/2028 academic year, accredited faculties are fully prepared to independently run the Law Practice Training Programme under the new law.
Faculties have been directed to conduct gap analyses of their existing curricula, recruit or develop practice-oriented faculty capacity, improve facilities and infrastructure, engage in structured collaborations with other faculties and the Ghana School of Law to address capacity deficits, and prepare to apply for accreditation when the portal opens in October 2026.
Professor Atuguba said the interim directives are intended to ensure an orderly and effective transition to the new legal education regime, especially for students graduating with an LLB this year, while also addressing the long-standing backlog of LLB graduates in Ghana.
He requested immediate dissemination of the directives to relevant stakeholders, including students, alumni, universities, faculties and departmental authorities, as well as continuous monitoring of compliance.
The letter was copied to the Chief Justice of Ghana and Chairman of the General Legal Council, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, the Minister for Education, the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, the Registrar of the Ghana School of Law, and Vice-Chancellors of all universities with law programmes accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission.
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