This morning, as the sun rises over Freetown, 449 law graduates will make their way to the Special Court Complex on Jomo Kenyatta Road. They will not be there to argue a case or meet a client, but to take part in a new chapter of Sierra Leone’s legal education; the maiden entrance examination into the Sierra Leone Law School.
At exactly 9:00am., these candidates will enter the Lecture Hall, find their seats, and open the exam papers that will determine whether they move one step closer to being called to the Bar. It will be the first time in the Law School’s history that admission is based not on interviews, but on written performance. The change illustrates a deliberate move toward transparency, merit, and academic fairness.
The exam will last three hours and will be divided into two parts. Part A will test candidates’ knowledge of core legal subjects: Criminal Law, Law of Contract, Law of Tort, Constitutional Law, Equity and Trusts, Land Law, and the Law of Evidence. These are the foundation stones of legal training, and every student sitting today’s exam will have been expected to master them.
Part B will focus on the Sierra Leone Legal System. Here, candidates will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of how justice works in this country; its courts, its structure, its Constitution, and the framework within which lawyers must operate.
Those sitting the exam today include graduates with at least a Third Class Honours Degree in Law from the University of Sierra Leone or other recognized institutions within the Commonwealth. Some candidates hold degrees from countries with legal systems analogous to Sierra Leone’s. Others have joint honours degrees, such as Law and Politics, and have completed the required legal subjects to qualify for entry.
For all of them, this is the start of what they hope will be a lifetime in the legal profession. If they succeed, they will begin the one-year professional training programme offered by the Law School, which prepares students for the Bar Final Examination; the final hurdle before becoming a lawyer in Sierra Leone. With a fused legal system in the country, successful graduates will be qualified to act as both barristers and solicitors of the High Court of Sierra Leone.
The academic year is expected to begin in mid-October 2025, and the next Bar Final examination will take place in June 2026. Meanwhile, over 450 candidates who sat the June 2025 Bar Finals are currently awaiting results, expected on or before September.
But today belongs to a different group. The 449 who will walk into the exam hall this morning are not yet law school students, and not yet lawyers, but they are on the edge of both. As they set their pens, check their documents, and take a final deep breath, they know that what happens between 9:00am. and noon could shape the rest of their professional lives.
And so, quietly and seriously, a new generation of Sierra Leone’s legal minds will begin their journey, not with a speech or an oath, but with an exam paper and a pen.
Let the writing begin.
