226 New Lawyers Call To The Bar

The Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Wood has charged judges and lawyers to accord and uphold justice delivery and practice with optimal integrity. 

She said the love for money is fast eroding the respect and confidence of the public in the legal profession. 

Mrs Georgina Wood was speaking at the enrollment of 226 new lawyers to the Bar in Accra.

The newly enrolled lawyers have undergone two years of dedicated professional study, passed the requisite examinations, attained the necessary standards of proficiency in the law and adjudged to be of sound moral character.

She said the legal profession is at a crossroad and asked the new lawyers to stand up and be counted, just as was done by lawyers, like John Mensah Sarbah of blessed memory.

Mrs Wood said presently, the legal profession is at the cross-roads and as such there is the need for the enforcement of legal ethics to the fast changing pace of legal education and practice.



Mrs Wood said lawyers, as believers in the rule of law, have a singular opportunity to stand up and be counted and save the profession and society from further decline.

She said while money has come to define the success in legal practice, “I would counsel against professional vanity.

“One of the simplest sacrifices you can directly make within your sphere of influence is to render some modicum of legal aid to the indigent in our society,” she added.

The Chief Justice said the strength of any organization lied in the integrity of individual members and other components of the organization, urging lawyers to imbibe the virtue of integrity, self-discipline and industry.

She commended lawyers for being at the forefront of people’s struggle for freedom and justice and must see themselves as having a duty to represent the voiceless in society.

Chief Justice Georgina Wood called on the new lawyers to give their maximum support to the bar as it forged ahead with their laudable vision of helping to entrench sound ethical values in the profession.
     
She said the face of the legal practice in Ghana would definitely undergo significant changes in the coming years, but the noble core professional values and ideals that could usher them into the professions respected hall of fame would remain unchanged.
     
Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and wife, Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, were among the dignitaries.
 
Also at the ceremony were Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Nene Amegatcher, President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and Justices of the Superior Courts.

Ms Nada Belinda Aidoo was adjudged the overall best lawyer in the part I and II examination.

GBC