Monrovia – Chief Justice Francis Korkpor has admonished law school graduates who passed the bar exam to be admitted as Attorney at Law that the judiciary needs a strong legal community.
Report by Kennedy L.Yangian [email protected]
He said under his bench, he intends to build a strong legal community in the country and called on the graduates that honesty should be first and foremost.
The exam is the second the judiciary has administered since the start of 2017.
The first exam was administered in February for attorneys-at-law who had practiced for the period of five years to be admitted as counselors in order to practice before the Supreme Court.
Of the 73 applicants who were qualified by the exam board to write the exams, 58 successfully passed to be admitted as attorneys while three performed exceedingly well.
Congratulating the graduates, Chief Justice Korkpor stated that though the graduates have passed the exam, they are not attorneys- at-law until they can be admitted to the local bars in their respective counties.
He said it’s a good thing for the newly minted lawyers to identify with their counties bar because the strength of the national bar depends on the local bars.
“We say you are welcome to the legal community. Law practice is a noble profession as you are now here we ask you to be fair as the practice requires that you be honest with yourself,” he said.
He called on the graduates not to condone ethical transgression because there are consequences which go along with it.
He called on graduates who benefitted from judicial scholarships, to return to the Temple of Justice to seek assignment as there is an existing contract to work for the Court following graduation.
The head of the graduating class, Benjamin Stewart, thanked the Chief Justice for providing them the opportunity to sit the exam which was a bold step.
Stewart appealed to the Chief Justice to reconsider those who failed the exams to re-sit in order to give them a second chance.