[1] The GBA has its roots in the Gold Coast Bar Association,[2] the first president was Sierra Leonean lawyer Francis (Frans) Dove.

[3] The Bar Association drew up its first formal constitution and code of ethics in 1958 and from then on except for a few occasions when due to political reasons an annual conference has not been possible, the Bar Association holds a conference annually to take important decisions and to elect its officers who hold office for only one year but are eligible for re-election.

In modern courtrooms, a railing may still be in place to enclose the space which is occupied by legal counsel as well as the criminal defendants and civil litigants who have business pending before the court.

[27] In April 2011, then National President Frank W. K. Beecham spoke in defence of Mr Justice E. K. Ayebi, a judge who had come under attack after acquitting 14 defendants in a murder trial.

[31] The Ghana Bar Association held its annual general meeting in Cape Coast in September 2011, soon after two magistrates had been sacked for demanding bribes.