Is the General Legal Council a blessing or a curse?

The legal profession is in danger of losing its essence and respect as the profession is plagued with numerous but avoidable problems in almost every sector of the professional spectrum. Everyone I speak to complains about the deterioration of standards but that is where the matter ends. I have wondered who everyone expects to make the point in order to influence and trigger the necessary change. In Ghana, the system to ensure that there are flow processes to guarantee minimum thresholds is inscribed in legislation. Two enactments are of relevance here i.e. the Legal Professions Act, 1960, Act 32 as amended and the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 1969, LI 613. However, as is usually the case the passage of laws, the State is left at the mercy of its citizens on whom it relies on to live up to their calling for the attainment of those thresholds, at the very least. The colonial administration fulfilled this requirement and left us to master the infrastructure they developed. What do we see presently? We seem to have been incapable of maintaining or simply following the precedent passed on to us, much more to develop it. There is an inadequacy even though, as a nation, we claim to have distinguished officials who, presumably, are ready and able to man our institutions. The State makes appointment of high officials at high cost to the taxpayer in order to ensure the smooth running of state infrastructure. But do we have value for the money spent on these officials? The answer you get when you question why there is such pervasive non-performance is that “…we have to amend the law… which is so-so and-so years old…” This is a stale excuse although such an excuse deserves to be heard from those who have a track record of performance and who only need to upgrade beyond established standards. It must not be heard from those who cannot even maintain colonial standards and, instead, turn the institutions they manage in a misguided direction and race to the bottom. If nothing is done to ensure that those tasked to uphold standard in the noble legal profession live up to their responsibility, the whole country will be worse for it. This will not serve our democracy well as it is this profession more than any other that determines the quality and caliber of our constitutional rule. Ghanaians must begin to voice out, publicly, our views of how our public officials conduct themselves on account of the positions they occupy. This is not personal since by voluntarily accepting those positions, they owe us a duty and they must adequately discharge the burden they willingly acquire or resign their commission for others to take up. These officials happily accepted to perform certain functions and they must be evaluated on them accordingly. This will be a mechanism for controlling the seeming unbridled prerogative of the Executive to make arbitrary appointments mostly on political considerations but at our expense.

Cleaning the system
Part of my hesitation to come out boldly to say it as it is, is premised on a recent experience I had in trying to stand up for a general good. I sued a public institution which issued an erroneous transcript without the care it ought to have exercised. My main motivation for suing was to ensure an improvement in the performance of that institution since I had received more than a few complaints regarding similar omissions from them. Although, those errors seemed minor on the face of the document, they were of serious consequences particularly because the transcript was directly mailed to a body abroad and since foreigners looked at our 'alien' qualifications with a pair of evil eyes, such errors can spell doom. The court refused to award me damages despite acknowledging that an error was made. When I subsequently applied for a transcript from the same institution, God only knows what I had to go through. I was hounded like at escaped convict from the Guantanamo Bay prison or a fleeing mujahedeen clutching an explosive-belt near an American embassy. I faced hostility, threats and scorn particularly from the Registrar, who confessed that his staff had repeated the very mistake that resulted in my earlier suit. Probably, his annoyance stemmed from the fact that he nearly authorized the release of yet another erroneous transcript but for listening to a small voice that spoke to him to cross-check the facts stated. Obviously, a failure to listen to that voice would have spelt disaster for him. As I write, not only has the transcript I applied and paid for, not been released but also a Certificate I was awarded about 5 years ago has been locked up by the Registrar in the Strong Room of that institution. I have been unable to meet the deadline for presenting the transcript to the institution abroad on account of this irrationality. I am being held to ransom for daring to hold that institution to account. I might face a similar treatment for writing this article. However, because my conscience has served me well in the past, I intend relying on its wise counsel to me, hence the publication of this article.

The legal profession in Ghana follows the general model practiced in common law or (wealth) countries. Under this model, the desire to become a lawyer starts with the academic study of substantive law in a tertiary institution leading to the award of a Bachelor's degree in Law (LLB). This is followed by the study of procedural law from accomplished practitioners in identified disciplines of law after which the candidate is either called to the Bar followed by an internship called pupilage, although, in some jurisdictions, the said internship (called 'Articling') precedes the call to the Bar.

In some countries, Law Societies oversee the training of lawyers starting from the teaching of procedural law and those institutions are responsible for maintaining standards within the legal profession. In other jurisdictions, the Inns of Court are run by the Bar Associations. However, in Ghana, the Legal Profession Act, 1960, Act 32 as amended empowers the General Legal Council to have power over the legal profession and, in particular “with the organisation of legal education, and … with upholding standards of professional conduct”. In the performance of its functions, it is to “comply with any general directions given to them by the Minister …” of Justice & Attorney General. Consequently, in Ghana, only the members of this Council and no one else have the duty imposed by law to see to the training of aspiring lawyer, call them to the Bar to become lawyers, ensure that they understudy practitioners for a minimum period called 'pupilage', regulate how chambers are open and run and generally ensure the maintenance of professional standards.

Some of the other duties of the General Legal Council (GLC) include checking on the “Status of Lawyers” and to ensure that Lawyers when so acting are “subject to all such liabilities as attach by law to a solicitor”; penalize “Unlawful Practice”; superintend over “Legal Education”, “Discipline” and the “Employment of Lawyers” and related matters. As can be seen from the foregoing, the GLC is in charge of the whole spectrum of the 'life cycle' of a lawyer, from conception to demise. Resultantly, in Ghana, any failure within the legal profession as contemplated by the said Act 32 can be blamed on no other entity but the said Council. The First Schedule of the said Act 32 provides for the membership of the Council as follows:

a) The Chairman who is the Chief Justice; b) the deputy chairman who is the most senior of the other Judges of the Supreme Court; c) two most senior Judges of the Supreme Court after the chairman and the deputy chairman; d) the Attorney-General; e) the Head of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana ; f) three persons nominated by the Minister of Justice; g) four members of the Bar of not less than five years' standing elected by the Ghana Bar Association.

The Ghana Bar Association being an association of almost all lawyers in Ghana also performs functions typical of most professional groups on matters such as the welfare, advocacy, ethics and peer review. The world over, the training to become a common law lawyer involves indoctrination from worthy members of the profession being experienced practitioners, induce into the newer members their lifelong experiences through a hands-on approach.

Auditing the spectrum
Let us begin to audit the spectrum. The initial training is administered through the Board of Legal Education and this commences at the Ghana School of Law which was built close to the Superior Courts to facilitate the influence of practical knowledge distinct from the academic part undertaken in the University. Under this regime, an aspiring lawyer is required to be submissive, modest and must observe the required decorum while dedicating one's self to conscientious study. The Rt. Ho. Peter Ala Adjetey of blessed memory put it aptly when he once stated that the life of a lawyer is a hard grind and for which the study of law ought to be overwhelming. Aside its exacting nature, the technical nature of the profession makes it inherently exploitative and is not work for persons with crooked traits which is why academic excellence alone is insufficient to merit being called to the Bar. By law, being called to be a Lawyer is subject to good behaviour. Comportment and respect for seniority and authority are fundamental to the profession as this has accounted for the survival of the profession over the ages, without which the relationship among lawyers and between lawyers and Judges would have degenerated long ago.

It is against this background that I think the GLC must sit up. I am concerned about what happens from the Ghana School of law through to how chambers are formed and run, to how complaints of professional misconduct against lawyers are handled and about the capacity of the GLC to monitor the institution it is meant to control. As stated earlier, the whole spectrum of activity as outlined falls within the remit of the General Legal Council which has the Attorney General as a member. I am more alarmed because some members of this body are also those responsible for ensuring that there is a credible Judiciary and their failure to perform in one area may be indicative of their performance in another. It must be noted that some members of the said council are also those required to oversee that the Judiciary and the Attorney General's Department and Ministry of Justice. Do Ghanaians have confidence in Lawyer, Judges and Prosecutors or the law enforcement agencies? The failure of the managers of our legal institutions to live up to expectation is what will spell doom for this sector and the country as a whole.

It is my humble view the element that distinguishes a democracy from other forms of governments is the administration of law and it is the preserve of the Legal Profession and the Judiciary to determine its quality. The protections guaranteed by a Constitution will, for instance, mean very little if lawyers and judges do not exhibit the requisite level of competence and professionalism and, instead, will compromise themselves and lofty principles that ought to guide them in their calling.

I became alarmed upon returning from a trip abroad to hear that some students of the Ghana School of Law had written a petition against a lecturer for failing them in a paper he marked. There is a creeping tendency towards petition writing which may be attributable to the misconception by students of the dedication required to be in a Law School . Increasingly, students are developing better expertise in writing petitions against their lecturers than writing their exams or focusing on their studies. I am told that some of these petitioners even resorted to mudslinging their lecturer in the press to create embarrassment and injecting politics into the equation. This is a dangerous and a cynical approach to cower school authorities to compromise on standards as the use of blackmail is an ominous sign for them to capitulate at the least resistance from students in order to prevent unnecessary attention.

Let me be clear, I am a former Student Representative Council (SRC) President of the Law School and an avowed advocate of students rights because I know from first-hand experience what students go through to be law students and the challenges they face thereof. Indeed, I was President during the tumultuous times that led to the formation of the Justice Akamba Committee which probed the Ansa Asare's Administration. Despite the agitations of the time, we found time and soberly organized a number of activities including a successful law week celebration. It was during this period that the Asantehene paid a glorifying visit to the Law School to the surprise of many. It was also during this period that we launched a lecture series using the ¢100 Million (old cedis) donated to the SRC by the Asantehene. In all these, none of the student executives failed or was repeated. In recent times, however, an SRC President is reported not only to have failed a paper but was repeated on account of non-performance. Something is definitely wrong! And the buck must stop with the GLC as it is solely responsible for recruiting the right lecturers and ensuring that discipline prevails during the training of lawyers.

In the past, the lecturers of the school had a positive influence on students as they were seasoned Lawyers and Judges who knew what to insist on to maintain standards, but this seems to have changed. In my day, which is quite recent, the likes of Prof Modibo Ocran (now deceased) could habitually be seen walking from the Supreme Court, where he sat as a judge, to join students for lunch in the students' canteen. He mostly used the occasion to get a sense of what pertained in the law school and, in turn, counseled us on a wide variety of matters. He helped to maintain the oral tradition required of the profession. May his soul rest in peace.

Presently, there are some lecturers of the school who have little or no courtroom experience. How are they expected to properly training students or ensure that the ambience of the School is what it ought to be? The need to strictly adhere to the basics is all the more important because of the very large numbers of candidates enrolled by the school authorities these days. The standard deviation from the said numbers translates into a large number of 'bad nuts' churned out each year unless the system eliminates them before they graduate. It is the responsibility of the GLC to maintain such order.

Upon graduation, it is the very GLC that is responsible for ensuring that newly qualified lawyers enter into chambers for pupilage and understudy their seniors to learn the rudiments of the profession. Section 4 of the said LI 613 states as follows:

“4) All professional chambers shall be registered with the General Legal Council.” The law and the legal tradition of the profession require the GLC to register and monitor Chambers and to ascertain whether they are operated in compliance with the requirements of the law. I am yet to hear of any checks made in this direction and for now, lawyers are deemed to be in good standing if they simply pay their licensing fee to the GLS or their dues to the Ghana Bar Association irrespective of whether they practice under trees or from the corridors in front of the court registry. We all see standards being lowered but pass no comment to influence change. This is a case of each man for himself and the devil laughs at us all.

Of late, there is a proliferation of chambers formed by relatively new lawyers. I think that it is a practice which ought to be an exception rather than the rule since there must be internal competence before attempting to run chambers. I have cited processes emanating from some of these chambers and they are embarrassing to say the least. Has the GLC cared to find out why this seems to be a trend currently in vogue in order to manage any risk associated with it?

I do not think it is proper to have a free enterprise approach to the formation of chambers. The system must compel relatively young lawyers to follow the age old order and be made to practice under seniors to ensure the attainment of the pre-requisite competence. The GLC must, in turn, be up and doing to resolve the mischief that induces inexperienced lawyers to create those hollow partnerships masquerading as chambers and used to inflict ignorance on unsuspecting clients. I shall even venture to say that it is not the intendment of the law, particularly upon reading the whole of section 4 of LI 613 that lawyers should practice in Ghana through the use of any vehicle other than chambers. It cannot be through partners in a registered firm or a registered association under the Registrar Generals but through partners in registered chambers under the GLC. Put that aside, I am told that foreigners are beginning to form chambers in the country. And why not, one might ask? But in a country where Chinese, Togolese and other foreigners are reported to be taking control of even the galamsey business, my heart bleeds and I question whether there is a national interest to protect what is Ghanaian. Just look at the shipping industry where the business of ship agency, stevedoring, ship husbanding and survey and even freight forwarding is being taken over by foreigners. But, why not and who cares! In the end, it is the poor and the average Ghanaian who suffers since the system has promoted so much laxity despite the huge number of employed officials whose responsibility it is to seek the national interest.

Point Blank
My point is, today, lawyers are perceived as not different from the crooks put before our courts. Ghana, like other common law countries, borrowed from a legal system that has been practiced that system for centuries in the country of origin, Great Britain. Unless we follow the ideals of this system in the manner that has withstood the test of time elsewhere, we run the danger of bastardizing a very credible scheme and this is a threat to our collective security. The GLC must sit up! Its members must be pressurized to work or resign their commission. What is the point in placing the power to manage a credible scheme into the hands of very high profile persons who do not seem to be producing results?

But, how can the GLC perform its numerous functions if the staff that man its secretariat number about five (5) and they conveniently fit into an office space measuring approximately 12"x 20" in a corner room of the Ghana School of Law? How many cases of complaint lodged by clients against lawyers have the Disciplinary Committee of the GLC dealt with? How many wrong-doing lawyers have the said Committee 'stitch' to save the profession from nine (9) more? We need to get serious in this country if we are to get anywhere meaningful. All that our officials do is to make big speeches, pray for the inflow of foreign assistance and implement the foreign projects without any domestication. They fail to roll up their sleeves to search for home grown solutions to tackle our challenges and make foreign assistance play only a supplementary role.

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