The Judiciary of The Gambia last Friday inaugurated the first-ever complex housing offices for The Gambia’s General Legal Council, a statutory body established under the Legal Practitioners Act and chaired by Chief Justice.
The Council is mandated, inter-alia to regulate admission to legal practice, uphold standards of professional conduct, as well as provide for legal education in The Gambia.
Presiding over the inauguration, His Lordship Hassan B. Jallow, Chief Justice, explained that the council is an independent body, corporate legal body and thus should have its own separate premises.
“I think with the inauguration today and with the employment of permanent staff by the council, the council will be able to focus much more vigorously on the mandate that is imposed on it by the statute.”
The Chief Justice however, noted that despite the lack of its own complex over the years, the Council has registered enormous accomplishments, overseeing the admission and call to the bar law of students from The Gambia Law School, among other things.
“Notwithstanding, this shortcoming of lack of premises over the past decades, the council has made tremendous strides. It has been overseeing the admission, the call to the bar from the legal school.” he said.
Under the supervision of the council, CJ noted that over four hundred law students have graduated from the law school since its establishment 2011.
Salieu Taal, president of The Gambia Bar Association, highlighted the need for legal amendments to give greater autonomy to Council, with provision of adequate resources to be able to properly and efficiently discharge its function, such as the education of lawyers to increase the competency and efficiency of legal practitioners.
Having the building and the equipment, he went on, are very important but that more emphasis should be put on the delivery of services.
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