THE Government of Guyana has officially moved forward with plans for the country’s long-awaited law school, inviting proposals for the design and supervision of the facility following final approval from the Council of Legal Education (CLE).
According to a Request for Proposals issued by the Ministry of Legal Affairs on Sunday, interested firms have been invited to submit technical and financial proposals for the design and supervision of the construction of the law school.
The procurement notice, published by the ministry, stated that interested firms can begin obtaining bidding documents from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) from May 28, 2026, between 09:00hrs and 15:30hrs, with proposals set to be opened on June 18, 2026, at the Board’s Main and Urquhart Streets office in Georgetown.
The move follows final approval from the CLE for Guyana’s law school, which will be constructed on an eight-acre plot at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus.
Government approved funding for the project in the 2026 national budget, with $100 million allocated for architectural designs and consultancy services, while procurement for the construction phase is already underway.
The establishment of a law school in Guyana has been a long-standing goal, with successive administrations pursuing the initiative for nearly three decades.
Currently, Guyanese law graduates seeking legal education must attend one of three CLE-operated institutions in the Caribbean: the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago, the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, or the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas.
The two-year Legal Education Certificate (LEC) programme can be obtained from any one of the schools. The LEC is a professional vocational certification required to practice law as an attorney in the Commonwealth Caribbean. It is the final qualification earned after completing an accredited Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree, qualifying the holder for admission to the Bar.
The planned law school is expected to significantly expand access to legal education locally, reducing financial barriers for students and allowing more graduates to complete the professional training required to practise law in Guyana and the region.
Tuition costs alone at Hugh Wooding exceed GY$7.4 million over the two-year programme, with first-year fees standing at TT$121,718 (approximately GY$3.75 million) and second-year fees at TT$121,418 (approximately GY$3.74 million).
The law schools have also been offering a six-month accelerated transitional course for qualified, common-law trained attorneys and legal professionals from other jurisdictions to earn the LEC, which is the mandatory credential to practice law in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
For years, Guyanese students have faced limited access to legal training opportunities, with only the top 25 law graduates annually securing automatic places at Hugh Wooding, despite the University of Guyana’s LLB programme often graduating more students than that each year.
The high cost of living in Trinidad and Tobago, and in other countries, has also posed challenges for aspiring attorneys, discouraging some from pursuing the LEC.
In response, the Guyanese government has, in recent years, offered a limited number of fully funded scholarships to support students desirous of pursing their LEC.
