In previous years, this has included Crimean War nurse, Mary Seacole and Dame Linda Dobbs – the first non-white person to become a judge in the UK High Court – as well as our own partner and head of clinical negligence – Carol Simpson.

This year, Carol would like us to pay tribute to a legal woman whom she greatly admires – I. Stephanie Boyce, the first person of colour to become president of the Law Society in its almost 200-year history. She also became the first Black officeholder at the Law Society and only the sixth female president, a position she held from February 2021 to October 2022.

Stephanie is of Caribbean descent.  Her father came to the UK from Barbados when he was 17 and her mother from St Vincent and the Grenadines aged 15.

Early education

Her family moved to the USA in 1985, where she lived for six years, undertaking her education there.  At the age of 19, one day after graduating from high school in the USA, she returned to the UK.  She knew she wanted to be part of the English legal system but came up against her first hurdle when she found that her American qualification was not valid in the UK.  She undertook a two-year, part-time access to education course, followed by a brief period working as a postwoman and for British Rail before she could start a part-time law degree in 1996 at the London Guildhall University.  She undertook her Legal Practice Course at the College of Law Guildford.

Early legal career

Finding a training course proved challenging and she says it was the steadfast encouragement of her father that helped her to pursue this and succeed. She eventually secured a contract with a firm in Aylesbury, where she qualified in 2002.  She had wanted to qualify into litigation, but it wasn’t available at that firm, which offered her a position in conveyancing. She found herself without a job – and ended up doing people’s gardens!  She applied to work in private practice – a role that she didn’t really like, and, during difficult times, was made redundant twice in two years.

Move to London

Stephanie wanted to work in-house and wanted to move to London.  A recruitment agency told her she would never work in the City – as she hadn’t trained, qualified or worked there – and that her salary expectations were too high!  Being as tenacious as Stephanie was, she found a different agency – and got a job in the City working as a solicitor for the General Bar Council where she became legal advisor to the then complaints commissioner.

Since then, Stephanie continued to work in in-house practice, taking roles with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Pensions Regulator, Ofsted and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, amongst others.  She also obtained a Master of Laws in Public Law and Global Governance (merit) from King’s College, London and a fellowship of the Chartered Governance Institute along the way. Stephanie has extensive experience in corporate governance, commercial, civil, public and regulatory law.

Work in the community

Mindful of the fact that she was doing lots in London and not much in her own community, Stephanie took time out to do some unpaid work, undertaking many projects, such as becoming:

• a member of the Joint Tribunal Service
• an independent person with her local authority’s standards committee
• chair of the Educational Appeal Panel and Exclusion Review Panel of her local authority
• a member of HM Treasury
• a member of the BEIS-commissioned independent task force to boost socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial and professional services
• on the advisory board of Thomson Reuters’ “Transforming Women’s Leadership in the Law”
• a commissioner of the National Preparedness Commission
• listed in the Power List 100 of the most influential black people in the UK in 2021 and 2022

She has won many honours and awards, including:

• Distinguished Alumni of the Year King’s College London – 2022
• Honorary Professor The Dickson Poon School of Law King’s College London – 2022
• Burberry British Diversity Award-Inspirational Role Model

Desire to represent the legal profession

Stephanie’s success came despite many years of being told she “wouldn’t” because she hadn’t attended the right university the first time, she wasn’t from a privileged background and she hadn’t qualified in a Magic Circle firm.  She was even told she didn’t look or sound like a solicitor!  The more she was told she couldn’t – the more determined she became.

Having fought so hard to become part of the legal profession, Stephanie always had a desire to represent it.  She joined the Law Society Council as a representative of the Women’s Lawyers Division in 2013 and then chaired the Conduct Committee and joined the Law Society’s board.

She set her sights on becoming president of the Law Society but was unsuccessful on three attempts – but she didn’t let this put her off and fought on.  On the fourth attempt, she was elected as the deputy vice president, which meant that she would automatically become president in three years.

Stephanie’s tenure as president has now come to an end and she is proud to have used it to try to remove some of the barriers she encountered to help others get through the obstacles, to bring about change to help make the profession more inclusive and diverse. She admits there is still more to be done until the profession reflects the society it serves but knows that it is more reflective of society today than it was 10 years ago, with 52% of practicing solicitors now female and 17.5% from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.

Carol Simpson says:

“I. Stephanie Boyce is someone who inspires me and someone to whom I can relate in her journey from studying to qualifying as a solicitor. She is tenacious – a description the Legal 500 has given to me. When people doubt what you can achieve, it only makes you stronger and hungry to succeed. As a Black female partner at Graysons, despite obstacles in my career path, I am proud of where I am today.”

This year during Black History Month, members of Graysons’ Book Club are reading Small Island by Andrea Levy – a book about a couple who move to the UK from Jamaica after the war and their life in post war London.  The book will be reviewed by the readers in November.