Group challenges GBA over right to determine who is a lawyer in Ghana

Leadership of the Concerned Lawyers has stated that it was only the General Legal Council that had the mandate to determine “who is a lawyer and who is a lawyer in good standing” in the country.

“This presentation is to clear lingering doubts and wrong perceptions being harboured by certain sections of society on Ghana Bar Association’s (GBA) mention of the term “Lawyers in Good Standing” in its annual publications on the standing of its members, which has been causing members who do not belong to the GBA to suffer public ridicule and embarrassment” .

This was contained in a statement issued by the group signed by Mr Addo-Aikins, Legal Practitioner, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The statement said it had come to the notice of the group that GBA’s annual publications on the standing of its members were being misinterpreted by certain sections of society to mean that “those lawyers whose names do not appear in the publications or those lawyers who are not found or heard at the GBA’s meetings or ceremonies or those lawyers who are not seen in robes during court sessions are not lawyers in Good Standing”.

It stated that people with such an idea be informed that GBA was a voluntary lawyers’ association, which lawyers in the country might choose to join or not to join adding, the term “Lawyers in Good Standing” as contained in the publications referred to “paid–up” members of GBA only and could not be a yardstick for assessing the status of lawyers.

The statement suggested that “GBA make amends and set minds at ease to prevent the recurrence of the serious damage, which its annual publications are causing to the integrity and reputation of lawyers who do not belong to it.

Source: GNA