I will be critical about standards even in my retirement – Outgoing CJ

Outgoing Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has served notice that she’ll continue to be critical of standards in the studying of law and its practice in Ghana even while she’s on retirement.

Describing her relationship with the Ghana Bar Association as “bittersweet”, she emphasized the need to always main a high standard in the practice of the legal profession.

“But that is how the best relationships normally are because without friction, you don’t get movement. We able to move only because of the friction between our feet. I am very grateful to the Ghana Bar and to Mr. Forson for his kind words. From the sidelines, I am still going to be very critical about standards because as for standards, we must never let them drop,” Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo posited during a thanksgiving service in her honour at the Kaneshie Presbyterian Church on Thursday.

The General Legal Council(GLC) which is chaired by the Chief Justice has come under intense criticism in recent times following the failure of hundreds of students to gain admission into the Ghana School of Law.

Over 90 percent of the students who sat for the recent examination failed to make the cut for admission.

Results showed that of the 1,820 candidates who sat for the entrance exams, only 128, representing 7 percent passed.

The mass failure comes on the back of a similar failure in the Ghana Bar exams a few months ago. More than 90 percent of the 727 students who wrote that exams failed, sparking agitation among the students.

Her Ladyship Sophia Akuffo has not hidden her opposition to mass admissions into the Ghana School of Law, insisting the standards will not be lowered just because many law students want to enroll in the school.

Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo will retire from the Judiciary and from the Bench on the 20th of December, 2019, as she attains the age of seventy (70), which is the retirement age for serving Justices of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo enrolled to the Bar in Ghana on the 2nd of October, 1975.

From her practice as a lawyer she was identified by then-President Jerry John Rawlings and elevated to the Supreme Court of Ghana in November 1995 and has served to date.