Professions such as legal secretaries, paralegals, law clerks, law reporters and legal journalists, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) specialists, legal authors and publishers and law librarianship are some of the many untapped legal roles students can look at pursuing as they wait to enter Makola - the Ghana School of Law.
This statement was made by Mr. Joseph Antah, a legal expert and librarian at the University of Ghana School of Law (UGSoL), when he joined a panel of accomplished legal experts at a Law Career and Education fair organized by 3 Points Career Consult.
At the session, Mr. Antah encouraged LL. B students seeking to pursue a legal profession to look for and take up such opportunities as it allows them to put to use the legal knowledge acquired in school.
“For a while now, there has been a backlog of students waiting to pass the law school entrance exams and make it to Makola. Many of such students put their career on hold when they could readily work with the knowledge acquired over their four-year period of study”, he said.
The UGSoL law librarian also called on the Ghana Legal Council to develop special ADR programmes for LL. B non-professional law students to grant them the recognised status to practice and contribute to the administration of justice in dispute resolution.
“In recent times, our court system has grown and developed court-connected ADR platforms which help settle some legal disputes. It is about time that special ADR programmes are developed for students who have not yet been called to the bar so they have an opportunity to practice and contribute to the administration of justice in dispute resolution,” he said.
Eddie Pattson, a participant at the fair and a third-year student at Achimota Senior High School, said the fair helped demystify issues pertaining to the study and practice of law in Ghana and made clearer career options available to him after the study.
“This career talk was an interesting one. It gave my colleagues and I the opportunity to know more about pursuing law at the university, and I believe with this knowledge we know the best options to go with when choosing a law university and a career,” he stated.
The law career and education fair was held on Thursday, 29th June, 2023 at the GNAT Hall, in Accra.