Declare GLC’s 1-year pupillage unconstitutional – Lawyer petitions Supreme Court

A private legal practitioner is challenging the General Legal Council’s (GLC) regulation that compels newly-trained lawyers to offer a year’s pupillage before they become certified solicitors.

This requirement, according to Mawunyo Kofi Adjaho of Accra-based Kimathi & Partners, is inconsistent with the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

The Attorney-General (A-G) and the GLC are named as first and second defendants, respectively, in the writ filed at the Supreme Court.

Young lawyers are required to undergo the concept of Pupillage before they qualify as barristers to practice independently.

This idea is much welcomed in the UK but in recent times, has raised controversy following the dismissal of two young female lawyers who got pregnant while undergoing pupilage at a private law firm.

However, Mawunyo Kofi Adjaho says Section 8(4) of the Legal Profession Act deals with the issuance of solicitor’s licences also referred to as practising certificates arguing that, lawyers who have been called to the bar should be given the solicitors licences and need not understudy at an established firm up to a year.