The GhanaBar Association is a professional association of lawyers in Ghana, including what used to be called solicitors and barristers but are now called legal practitioners, as well as magistrates. By convention all lawyers admitted to practice in Ghana become automatic members of the association. The first president of the Ghanaian Bar was Sierra Leonean lawyer Frans Dove.
History and membership
The British parliament established the Supreme Court of Judicature for the Gold Coast Colony in 1876, with a Chief Justice and no more than four Puisne Justices. John Mensah Sarbah was the first native of Ghana to be called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1887. The legal system was based on that of England, in which solicitors provide legal advice and prepare legal documents while barristers act as advocates in court. However, this division was not observed in practice in Ghana, and in 1960 an act abolished the distinction. Until the Ghana School of Law was established in 1958, all lawyers were trained abroad, almost always at the Inns of Court in England. As of 2011 there are about 2,500 practicing lawyers, although not all have registered as members of the Bar Association. Nene Amegatcher was elected as president of the GBA on 20 September 2012, with Peter Zwennes as his vice. The current national president of the GBA is Anthony Forson Jnr. Some past presidents of the GBA include:
In October 2010 then GBA Vice President, Mr. Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo, called on the Chief Justice and the Council to eliminate inconsistency, corruption and misconduct by judges. In April 2011 then National President Frank W. K. Beecham spoke in defence of Mr Justice E. K. Ayebi, a judge who had come under attack after acquitting 14 defendants in a murder trial. In July 2011 four lawyers made allegations of widespread corruption among judges. The GBA condemned the four for making unsubstantiated claims, and asked them to name the judges. Another lawyer openly confessed to having bribed a judge. The GBA said it would take legal steps to prosecute him. The four lawyers were blacklisted by the Association of Magistrates and Judges. They and others stated that they were considering forming an alternative Association. The Ghana Bar Association held its annual general meeting in Cape Coast in September 2011, soon after two magistrates had been sacked for demanding bribes. Then GBA President Frank Beecham said the association would fight corruption in all its forms. The GBA would establish a complaints unit to take complaints about corruption and ensure that offenders were prosecuted.
