The lawyers at the ceremony
Some 777 new lawyers, including two persons with disability – one visually impaired and a person with hearing and speech impairment, were called to the Ghanaian Bar last Friday.
The new lawyers were urged not to be part of destructive conversations or activities that break-up a nation.
Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo in a speech highlighted the contribution lawyers have made to Ghana’s development and challenged them not to be part of activities that destroy the economy, whether it is the political, environmental or social economy.
“Lawyers must be those who rally around with knowledge, doctrines, precepts, values and skills to build the nation up in every circumstance of growth,” she said.
She indicated that when the nation is on a high tide, lawyers are there to support the shaping of the nation, adding that lawyers must be there to support the nation when it finds itself in a low tide.
Changing Times
Justice Torkornoo touched on the fast-growing pace of technology, especially the era of internet and artificial intelligence, which she said has thrown the world into the era of fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
This, she noted, opens up vistas of both criminal and civil law beyond anything that can be anticipated, hence those in the legal fraternity need to be keenly conscious of the fact that human conduct and innovation does not wait for law. “It is law that always has to catch up with human conduct”, she stated.
She, therefore, urged lawyers to use the skills, knowledge and values given at the law school to serve their communities.
“This will include the ability to evaluate, the ability to distil facts, find the applicable law, evaluate, reason, structure and weave applicable law into solving problems. These are hard tasks and would be hard tasks without the current blurred and manipulatable state of the world.
“And we cannot help but be reminded that in every wave of history, every tide of history, through slavery, industrialisation, colonisation, and wars, it is the law that has provided the structure and support for proper social engineering. Even in war, it is the laws of war that assist human kind to carry on that nasty activity without totally annihilating everyone off the planet. If evil is to be kept at bay, law, lawyering, orderliness and legality has to be at the front of the march,” Justice Torkornoo said.
Pupilage
The Chief Justice further urged the new lawyers to take their 6-month pupilage seriously because it is part of the requirement for acquiring a practicing license.
“There are not enough law firms in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi to accommodate all of you. Please find out where law firms are around the country, stay in other parts of the country, work with law firms there and get this critical part of the professional requirement out of the way,” Justice Torkornoo added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak