“Ghana has too many lawyers” has become a popular opinion, even among lawyers. The Attorney General recently called it a false notion. Unpopular, but I agree with him.
Nearly three in four active lawyers are in Accra. More than half of our districts have no law firms, leaving people with nowhere to turn for legal solutions. Even the State is struggling: the Local Governance Act requires every district assembly to have a legal department, yet many have no lawyer. We lawyers in practice spend most of our energy fixing things after they break, instead of preventing problems. All this means people don’t feel the impact of the "many" lawyers in their daily lives, and often “perish” for lack of information.
Over 90% of businesses in Ghana are informal, and many of the rest are incorporated but winging it. They run on connections, without contracts/clear land title or compliance plans. This blocks them from capital and growth; a huge advisory gap transactions lawyers can help close.
Here’s how:
Use existing laws until they work: Businesses fail when zoning, permit and licensing rules are ignored. Lawyers can push compliance through RTI requests, policy submissions and advice to assemblies. Long before the RTI Act, I had an assignment tracking statutory funds. It was illuminating. Lawyers, be curious. Dig deep.
Put a lawyer in every assembly: Citizens are questioning how property rates are spent and barely know bye-laws exist. Bring the law to the people; lawyers can show how.
Help (small) businesses formalise operations with plain-language contracts and law clinics with trader and transport unions. Knock-on effects: better, more imaginative insurance products, banking data that unlocks credit, and the paperwork SMEs need to trade across Africa under AfCFTA.
Build legal literacy before there’s a crisis: tenancy, employment, inheritance and land, extra marks if it’s in local languages.
Make pro bono count by tying it to CPD. The Bar can make all the free legal calls worth lawyers’ while.
“But a lawyer needs a client. Who instructs us?”
The client already exists: Assemblies are potential clients, so are the constituents. Associations and unions can retain a lawyer like a company does. A thousand members who can’t afford a lawyer can become one client who can. Some work needs no client; a lawyer is a citizen too, and can file an RTI request. Ultimately, people don’t hire lawyers for problems they don’t know are legal. Literacy builds the client base.
I grew up around lawyers who used the law to drive real change, sometimes at the risk of their lives. Thankfully the challenge has evolved: we “only” need to widen access to justice. Who better to lead that charge than the learned? The law should be infrastructure, like roads and power. Right now it’s a luxury good. [New] Lawyers, you can change that.
Challenge accepted?