Legal education caught in a 1960 conception – Lecturer
Nii Kpakpo Samoa-Addo said law faculties should encourage collaboration between law firms and their faculties.
A senior lecturer at the GIMPA Law Faculty , Clement Akapame, has described the current state of legal education in Ghana as one that needs innovation.
According to the senior lecturer at the GIMPA School of Law, a lot has changed in legal education over the past decades.
“We are still teaching, using the methods that they used to teach us,” he said.
He was answering a question on the state of legal education in Ghana at the TAG series, an event organised by Asaase Radio, and themed; ‘Legal Education at the crossroads in Ghana.’
He also shared a panel with the Deputy Attorney-General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah, and private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa-Addo.
In support of what he has said, he stated that innovation should happen at both the level of training of law students and in that of growing legal academics.
He particularly cited the idea of legal clinics, which according to him should ultimately help law students build their skills.
“So I think we need to look at our training because these clinics are very important. There are students here, they study contract law, but they will never see a single contract. In the US, at a certain level, in school, you are able to go to court under the supervision of a clinic professor. So you don’t need lawyers going to the district court. Some of these immigration cases, very petty issues, you have students, working under supervision. They meet clients… so we need to move away and innovate at the level of the faculty,” he explained.
Madam Diana Asonaba Dapaah noted that law faculties are struggling to get lecturers.
Mr. Clement Akapame as part of proposals, suggested: “there should be a conscious effort of growing students who will teach law,” which according to him should include graduate assistants and research assistants.
Nii Kpakpo Samoa-Addo said law faculties should encourage collaboration between law firms and their faculties.
“And you will realise that if a student has both the practical and theoretical training, he or she turns out the better, because the exams makes sense.”
All panelists however agreed that legal education should be easily accessible without compromising on the quality in the quest to train more lawyers.
