This process is guided by the Legal Education (Accreditation and Quality Assurance) Regulations, 2016 (“Regulations”). The Regulations apply to any Legal Education Provider. According to the Regulations, a legal education provider is any institution or place of learning, however established, whose object is to provide legal education and training.
Legal education is defined as any education or training programme offered by an institution whose object is to impart knowledge or skills in the area of law, or such other educational or institutional training that the Council may declare to be legal education and training. This definition is wide enough to cover education, which does not necessarily prepare a person to be the traditional lawyer, but in one way or another, to operate within a field of law. This may include training of paralegal, training on judicial systems etc. The Regulations shall apply to any institution that is or intends to offer legal education in the Country. All these institutions are required to apply for licensing before mounting any legal education programme in the country.
The application for licensing as a legal education provider is undertaken through the following key steps:
Institutions are required to apply in the format set out in the first schedule of the 2016 Regulations, using Form CLE/L/001.
Applicants MUST also furnish Council the following as part of the application;