He suggested that the new legal regulatory body be named as the Council for Legal Education and Practice (CLEP), and should focus on accrediting Law Faculties, setting quality control standards, administering the Bar examination, approving state of the art and market-driven continuing legal education programmes, and setting and enforcing ethical standards.

He was of the view that legal education must be entrusted to the law faculties and the membership of this new body should comprise of persons with scholarly attainments and an affirmative interest in legal education and requirements for admission to the Bar.

Professor Asare made the call at a roundtable discussion on the Legal Profession Amendment Bill, 2019, organised by CDD-Ghana in collaboration with the Parliamentary Network Africa, in Accra.

The practice of legal profession and legal education in Ghana is regulated by the Legal Profession Act 1960, (Act 32), and over the years, the Act has come under serious scrutiny following the perceived inadequacies and the failure of the Act to respond to current needs.

Two main issues had dominated the public discourse; the requirement for entrance exams to the Ghana Law School for students pursuing a professional qualification in law and the general rules governing the establishment and practice of law firms.

Prof Asare said while these controversies played out, the Legal Profession Amendment Act had not undergone significant change, therefore, to give proper effect to these changes, required several substantial amendments that would essentially change the character and substance of the Act.

He noted that while the proposed Amendment Bill had a memorandum that detailed the sections of the Act that it proposes to amend, it did not provide any rational, whether normative or empirical, for the proposed amendments.

He said for instance, Clause 2 of the Bill amends section 13 of the Act by the insertion of a new subsection (2A) to enable the GLC to allocate quotas to universities that the Council had approved to run the Bachelor of Law programme.

Prof Asare said Clause 2, which highlights (quotas), was entirely unnecessary and continued the post-2012 dysfunctional trend of forcing students to terminate their legal education after acquiring the Bachelor of Laws (LLB).

In a panel discussion, Mr Justice Srem- Sai, a Law Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) said currently the GLC had posted students to law firms for their pupillage programme, and surprisingly, some of these law firms had been out of practice for years.

He said this meant the GLC had no interest in whatever happens to students who were being posted, and therefore the pupillage programme itself had challenges, adding that "you are better of attaching students to specific state institutions".

Prof Henry Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director, CDD-Ghana, said with the history of contemporary Ghana, specifically in the fourth republic, it was well known that lawyers played an exceptional role in the affairs of the state.

He said the growing interest of the legal profession keep growing, therefore, how lawyers were being trained, thus, the business of educating as well as regulating the profession, was of public interest.

Mr Srem-Sai said students could be posted to the Attorney General Department for not more than three months, or probably to Legal Aid, to practice the knowledge acquired in school and as well take the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience.

Mr Ben Abdallah Banda, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the Amendment Bill was referred to them some time ago, and the issues raised at the forum, were issues the Committee had also considered.

He said since 1960 the population and even the interest regarding the legal profession had changed, therefore, the status quo must as well change, hence, the Committee was devoted to ensure the Bill does not infringe on the Constitution.

"We have planned of doing a Stakeholder Engagement (SE), even though this is calling upon us to have certain portions of the Act amended, we have decided to have SE in order to solicit a lot more views on the way forward with respect to Ghana's legal education", he added.