Justices of the Superior Courts,

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Hon. Ms. Gloria Afua Akuffo,

Members of the Lower Court Bench here present,

The President and Members of the Bar,

Director and Lecturers of the Ghana School of Law,

Newly qualified Lawyers, Parents, Relations and Friends,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Permit me to welcome all of you to this expanded meeting of the General Legal Council which I have the honour and privilege to chair; and to perform the statutory duty of enrolling and calling to the Bar newly qualified lawyers.

Let me begin by congratulating all of you graduands here for having qualified to be enrolled as Lawyers.  This is no mean achievement.

In that vein, join me in thanking some people without whom you could not have realized the objective for this meeting. First, your families: spouses, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters etc. These are the people on whom you leaned when you needed support and encouragement when you embarked on this fruitful journey.

And for you, spouses, parents and guardians, I can imagine the tremendous pride as you watch your spouses, children and wards go through this ceremony.  Congratulations to you!

Join me also in thanking the Director and the academic staff of the Ghana School of Law. It is they who nurtured you as persons with graduate degrees in Law into becoming Lawyers. I believe you will always remember some of these dedicated lecturers, particularly those who touched your lives in the defining moments of your professional legal training with their personal stories.

Our thanks should go beyond the academic staff to the administrative staff who kept the School functioning every day of your School life and who as part of the Ghana School of Law family, deserve our recognition.

The road to become Lawyers has not been smooth as you are aware. But, as you must have been told by your Lecturers, do not delude yourselves into thinking that your education is now over. This is, in fact, the beginning of your careers as Lawyers; a life that will be a journey from one lesson to another and a life that could take you perhaps in directions and/or destinations you cannot predict as you embark on this journey. Indeed, the Legal Profession opens opportunities including, but not limited to, administration, judicial duties, private legal practice, business, and the like.

I must also add here that the study of law has no end, in the sense that almost every day the law develops and changes in a way which demands, as Lawyers, that you research in order to be abreast of the developments in all fields of the law. You will soon realize that you cannot exclusively rely on the legal knowledge that you have acquired during your training. To prove yourself worthy of the study of the law, you need to read on a wide range of topics and develop a legal mind that can be very incisive to help solve problems of the community in which you live. This has become imperative in our contemporary world characterized by new and evolving technologies, challenges and opportunities.

The Bar, to which you are being called today, has a very important role to play in the maintenance of law and order as well as the rule of law. In whatever area of endeavour you find yourselves, you will be met with challenges and/or problems. As you commence your careers, I remind you of your special duty to the Legal Profession, to the Court, to your Clients and to the Country as a whole. In effect, you have to be disciplined, truthful, diligent, courteous and humble in all you do, as such conduct demonstrates the virtues of life which make for nobility associated with the Legal Profession. As new Lawyers, you are the eyes of the communities in which you live and the society’s expectation of you to live beyond reproach cannot be overemphasized.    

I must emphasize here that the current state of the Bar is not the best due to the conduct of some Members. We are witnessing these days an increase in the number of disciplinary cases before the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council against Lawyers, especially the younger ones at the Bar.  The root cause of most of these is lack of self-discipline and the desire to “get-rich-quick” on the part of young Lawyers. Indeed, Apostle Paul admonishes in 1 Timothy 6: 10 thus: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Your integrity as a Lawyer is very crucial and you must jealously protect it, no matter the challenge or the temptation that presents. As provided in Proverbs 22:1, “a good name is better than riches”. Let this be a guiding principle of your lives. Be mindful of the fact that the General Legal Council will not close its eyes to any infractions on your part in the pursuit of your careers if it is brought to its attention.

This is obviously a great day in your lives and I do not intend keeping you here much longer.  This is one of the few moments in your lives when you can pause, look back with satisfaction at what you have achieved and also look forward to a new future whose doors have been opened by your enrolment at the Bar.

Make the most of it!

Congratulations once more, I thank you for your attention.