By Francis H. Murray
Sierra Leone’s Chief Justice who is also Chairman of the Council of Legal Education (CLE) Desmond Babatunde Edwards has said that the Council would be exploring and devising “up-to-date state of the art strategies to make the school more accessible in district headquarter towns across the country and abroad”.
Addressing the gathering at the Call to Bar ceremony held at the Freetown International Conference Centre on Friday 19th March 2021, Justice Edwards disclosed that one of such strategies will be the provision of video conference classes aimed at linking students in distant locations.
Admitting the 140 graduates of the Sierra Leone Law School to the Bar, the Chief Justice congratulated them for what he referred to as their hard work, commitment and focus in becoming lawyers. “Today marks an important day in your life in that you will not only be moving from the student stage to begin to earn for yourself a place in the legal world but you are beginning a life-long journey. The future belongs to you and what you make of it will depend on your attitude and application. No requirement is more important than character and hard work,” he stated.
He said over the years the Sierra Leone Law School has signaled its unique importance by turning out no less than 1,127 graduates to be called to the Bar with the great majority turning out to be Barristers and Solicitors.
He stated that the Sierra Leone Law School started on 23rd February 1990 after the establishment of the Council of Legal Education Act, No. 1 of 1989 and comprised at the time 26 students from three sets of graduates from the Faculty of Law, FBC-Class of 1987, 1988 and 1989.
He said himself and quite a good number of others present at the ceremony were privileged to be in that 1990 class of “pioneers,” adding that the school has grown to the point where the Class of 2020 comprised 199 students with over 200 students expected this year.
The Chief Justice Edwards noted that the school has produced two Chief Justices and three Attorneys General over the period with more students now applying for admission into the Law School wanting to become Legal Practitioners.
In his statement, Supreme Court judge Alusine Sesay said the Chief Justice is on record as the first to have decentralised the justice sector by deploying resident Magistrates and Judges in almost all district headquarter towns across the country.
He said Justice Edwards has also established the first three divisions of the High Court using Constitutional Instrument No. 4 of 2019 to create the Industrial and Social Security Court; the Anti-Corruption Court and the Sexual Offences Model Court, describing him as a “developmentally- oriented leader.”
Speaking about “massive reforms within the judiciary especially in opening the wider space for justice”, the guest speaker Justice Jon Kamanda warned the new graduates to be courteous with their clients and to always conduct themselves professionally.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (22/03/21)
