More than 1,500 new lawyers were called to the Ghana Bar on Friday.
And as the photos and posts kept coming over the weekend, it became clear that behind many of those robes and wigs were stories nobody saw.
Some of the stories shared by the new lawyers and their families shook us to our core, others inspired us, and a few reminded us that getting to the Bar often takes faith, sacrifice and a stubborn refusal to give up.
These are some of the ones we haven’t stopped thinking about.
1. Karen Yartey
I am Karen Yartey Esq. I started this journey as healthy as I could be, but just 2months before I wrote my final exam.i became blind, deaf and paralyzed. Yesterday I got called to the bar .#esqszn #esq #calltothebar2026 #lawyer https://t.co/eeMuaWHtYq
— opposing counsel (@geoKarenY) October 11, 2026
Ghanaian lawyer Karen Yartey is one person who has been through more in the last two years than most of us will go through in ten, and she told the whole story on X.
She wrote that she started law school as healthy as she could be, but two months before her final exams she became blind, deaf and paralysed, and then she ended with the line that got everyone: “Yesterday I got called to the bar.”
The photos she attached show her on a stretcher being wheeled through a hospital corridor and lying in a hospital bed with a drip taped to her hand.
She didn’t say what caused it or how she managed to write her exams, and she doesn’t owe anyone that explanation, because the fact that she made it to the Bar after all that is enough.
2. Rose Eva
Rose-Eva’s younger brother, Paul-Elijah, was called to the Bar before her, which makes him her “junior-senior,”.
She survived a delayed graduation, the entrance exam wahala, law school itself and losing both of their parents.
Just days before their father died, he made Paul-Elijah promise that Rose-Eva would never give up on becoming a lawyer.
She reached the Bar as a brand-new mother to Baby J, and her brother summed it all up in four words: “Elikem, you did it.”
3. Richmond Tsatsu Ganyo’s Call to the bar
At 25, Richmond Tsatsu Ganyo is now the first lawyer in his family.
He is also a musician with performance videos to his name and a keen football fan. An old boy of Pope John Senior High School and Minor Seminary, he earned his LLB at GIMPA, where he now works as a Teaching Assistant in Constitutional Law, and he has gained practical experience through internships at the Kwabenya Circuit Court and at Darko, Keli-delata & Company.
When asked whether he had always wanted to be a lawyer, his answer was a clear yes.
He plans to keep teaching law and to go into intellectual property law and the legal side of football, which could bring all three of his passions together.
4. The Nafrah family: A father and son called to the Bar on the same day
Mrs Lilia Hajema Nafrah, CEO of the interior design and furnishing company Lesh Fortune Limited, had two reasons to celebrate on Friday.
Her husband, Dr Yao Eli Sebastian Nafrah, Esq., and their son, Craig Setor Malex Nafrah, Esq. (@nafrahcraig), were called to the Bar together and that’s cute by all standards
5. Kimi Odum
Our internet nephew Kuuku’s mum, Kimi Odum’s last two years will humble anyone who thinks their schedule is tight.
She finished her LLB at GIMPA in July 2024, wrote the Ghana School of Law entrance exam in September, started a master’s at UPSA that same month, and got into law school in October.
In her own words she revealed that her week went like this: 13 hours at the Ghana School of Law on Wednesdays and Thursdays, then UPSA on Friday evenings, all day Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with her kids, whom she calls her “cheeky monkeys,” in between all of it.
At one point her UPSA exams and the Ghana School of Law’s dreaded Part One exam landed within the same three weeks.
When people ask how she did it, she says it could only be God, and she now has a master’s in Brands and Communications as well as “Esq.” after her name.
6. Maame Kyeraa
POV: You and your husband are both lawyers, and you’re raising a son who will hopefully one day don the gown and add “Esquire” to the end of his name too.
This is the story of Maame Kyeraa, whose husband, Richie, celebrated her after her Call to the Bar on Friday.
Beyond the celebration, he also chose to share the part of her journey that nobody saw, writing about “the sleepless nights, the sacrifices, the tears, the pressure, and the silent battles.”
