GBA has no business responding to law firms’ petitions – Dafeamekpor

Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the Majority Chief Whip and President of the Ghana Law Society, has expressed severe criticism towards the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) for responding to petitions initiated by law firms concerning the availability of lawyers during court proceedings. According to Dafeamekpor, the GBA has no right to address concerns issued by non-members, as the petitions were not submitted by individual lawyers but by the law firms themselves.

He emphasized that lawyers and law firms are independently licensed entities, and the petitions were raised by the firms rather than the lawyers who practice within them. Dafeamekpor questioned why the GBA should respond to the grievances of entities not affiliated with their association. He also pointed out that if individual lawyers were experiencing issues with their capacity to conduct business during proceedings, they should have filed their petitions through their own names, not their firms.

Dafeamekpor suggested that if law firms had genuine concerns about their ability to carry out legal duties, they should have taken steps to ensure their lawyers could handle their cases. He pointed to examples of firms like Sam Okudzeto and Akyea, which have over 20 and 15 lawyers listed as members, respectively, and questioned how such firms could face such difficulties.

Dafeamekpor further highlighted that senior lawyers could delegate tasks to their associates within the same firm, making it difficult to assert that the current situation is unprecedented. He dismissed the GBA's stance as "pure politics," indicating that they were merely creating a narrative without valid grounds.