GBA Annual Conference Opens in Ada with the Call for Lawyers to Embrace Industry and Innovation

_{Published September 15, 2026}

ADA, GREATER ACCRA — The 2026/2027 Annual General Conference of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) commenced yesterday in Ada under the theme, “150 Years of Ghana’s Legal Evolution: Transforming the Profession and Driving its Future with Industry.”

The opening ceremony brought together members of the Bench and Bar, government officials and other distinguished guests, including the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya.

Other dignitaries included Justice Anthony Forson (a former Bar President), Dr Srem-Sai Deputy Attorney-General and senior members of the Superior Court.

Addressing the conference, Mrs. Badejo-Okusanya underscored the need for lawyers to understand the rapidly changing commercial and technological environment in which their clients operate.

“There is work for lawyers across this entire landscape. But to do that work well, we must understand the world our clients inhabit. We must be willing to learn how their businesses operate, how technology changes their risks and how our advice can help them to move forward. We cannot guide tomorrow’s enterprises with yesterday’s understanding.”

Drawing a connection between the professions’ history and its present responsibilities, she observed that the lawyers who helped shape Ghana’s legal history could not have anticipated every challenge confronting the profession today, but understood that their knowledge carried with it a duty.

The President of the Greater Accra Regional Branch of the GBA, Ms. Isabel Boaten, similarly called for the growth of the Bar to be accompanied by a corresponding expansion in the professions’ influence and relevance beyond traditional legal practice.

“Therefore, it is imperative that the growth in our numbers is matched with an expansion in our influence. One that extends beyond the black letter of the law to a stage where lawyers are not merely gatekeepers who identify legal risks or spectators of industry but partners  in courtrooms, policy formulation and across negotiation tables.”

On her part, the President of the Ghana Bar Association, Mrs. Efua Ghartey, traced the development of Ghana’s modern justice system to the Supreme Court Ordinance of 1876 and stressed that judges, lawyers and Judicial Service staff perform distinct but complementary roles in the administration of justice. She cautioned against utterances capable of undermining the mutual respect upon which the legal profession was founded on.

Mrs. Ghartey also disclosed that the GBA Welfare Fund had grown to a little over Ten million Ghana Cedis (GH¢10 million), providing a stronger financial foundation for the Associations’ proposed enhanced welfare package.

The proposed interventions include a new medical insurance scheme covering outpatient and inpatient care, enhanced death benefits and measures to facilitate their prompt payment, as well as negotiated vehicle and mortgage facilities for members, particularly young lawyers.

The Ghana Bar Association, in its present form, dates to 1957 and remains the principal professional association of lawyers in Ghana. According to Mrs. Ghartey, the profession has grown from eleven (11) lawyers in 1957 to more than twelve thousand (12,000) today.

The Annual Conference serves as a major gathering of the Bar, providing members an opportunity to deliberate on matters affecting the profession, consider resolutions and chart the Association’s course whilst relaxing and rejuvinating for the ensuing legal year.