2 Ghanaian lawyers suspended after getting pregnant

Legal Ink Lawyers & Notaries is reported to have suspended the two lawyers from completing their mandatory 12-month pupillage.

This is despite the insistence of the two lawyers that they are fit and are willing to stay on and work.

The Ghanareport.com reports that they were handed letters on January 6, 2020, to go home and return only after the delivery of their babies.

File Photo Pulse Ghana

Graduates from the Ghana School of Law are mandated to undertake an internship with a law firm before they are called to the bar.

This internship programme is then followed by another year of pupillage at a law firm, before the lawyer is given a solicitor’s licence.

However, the two lawyers are now certain to have their licences delayed due to their suspension.

Management of the law firm is said to have asked the young lawyers to defer their pupillage until after delivery.

A letter from Legal Ink Lawyers & Notaries confirming their suspension read: “We first mentioned your health and welfare as well as that of the baby and the need to avoid stress which comes with the duties of a pupil to appear for training at the Firm daily or regularly and our inability to insist on or expect your attendance on regular basis or demand from you, an output ordinarily expected of pupils.

“The second reason we gave for the decision suspending your pupilage programme, which also flows from the above, is the Firm’s inability to make a full and honest declaration to the General Legal Council that you were able to undertake the 12-month mandatory pupilage programme.

“You would notice that already you have been absent from work on many occasions on the grounds relating to ill-health due to the pregnancy…”