For decades, Ghanaian law students have graduated with an excellent command of statutes, cases and legal reasoning.
What they have lacked, until very recently, is any opportunity to test that knowledge on real problems with real people before qualifying. The gap between law on the books and law in practice is not merely academic. It is a justice gap.
Clinical Legal Education (CLE) is now globally accepted as the most transformative pedagogy in law. It turns abstract doctrine into lived practice, builds advocacy, research, teamwork and ethical judgment, and puts law faculties to work on access to justice. Yet, in Ghana, the primary barrier to effective CLE has been regulatory.
Superior courts have consistently held that only licensed solicitors may represent clients — a ruling rightly designed to protect clients, but one that has been interpreted to exclude law students from court representation entirely.
Most faculties have therefore run “clinics” as projects, press events, or moots — but never for credit.
No credit means no institutional weight; no weight means no transformation and no sustainability.
Ghana’s new Legal Education Act, 2026 (Act 1170) proposes to make CLE part of law curricula nationwide.
This is welcome. But proposals without a working model risk being shelved by the same “student representation” objection.
Without a concrete model that addresses the regulatory barrier, the full promise of CLE may go unrealised.
This is where the model I conceived, designed and piloted in 2023 becomes directly relevant.
A model that works within the law
The MSMEs/Agric Justice Clinic, conceived with the support of the then Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, (Prof. Raymond Atuguba) and mentored by Prof. Lucie White of the Harvard Law School, is a hybrid, transdisciplinary model combining in-house legal support, street law and externship.
Students provide direct support to farmers and small businesses through legal research, policy advocacy, media work, field investigations, and community legal education.
Where court appearances are required, licensed post-graduate students lead the work in court; undergraduates build the case behind them and appear with them.
The results from the 2023 pilot were striking. All participating students reported meaningful exposure to how the law affects vulnerable populations. More than 90 per cent encountered real legal problems they had never previously considered.
Many engaged in field research and data analysis for the first time. Most significantly, clinical work translated, for the first time in Ghanaian legal education, into academic credit, dissertation topics and student portfolios.
The design respects the Legal Profession Act, while giving undergraduates full clinical responsibility under proper supervision.
It also invites participation from other faculties, such as Business, Agriculture, Social Sciences, etc., so that the non-legal barriers such as market access, supply chains and cultural norms are addressed alongside the law.
On funding, the model draws lessons from South Africa: using candidate attorneys and senior students as tutors reduces overhead costs, while tuition allocations, donor funding, and dedicated trusts can together sustain the work. Government cannot carry this alone in the short term. Faculties must build sustainable models now.
The time for debate is over
Ghana does not need another decade of debate about whether students should engage with real cases.
We need to institutionalise what already works.
The model above demonstrates that credit-bearing clinical education is achievable within our regulatory framework, impactful for students and genuinely useful for marginalised communities.
Legal reform will not come from statutes alone.
It will come from evidence built by students who are in the field, talking to farmers and traders and publishing their findings.
That is what elevates CLE beyond skills training: it makes law responsive to the people it is meant to serve.
I urge deans and GTEC to take this model, adapt it where necessary, fund it and scale it.
If we do, the next generation of Ghanaian lawyers will not only know the law, but they will also know how to use it.
This piece is based on the case study “Clinical Legal Education in Ghana: A Vision and a Roadmap” by Dr Clara Kowlaga Beeri Kasser-Tee, published in Journal of Legal Clinic Francophone
