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11 January 2021Influential Women in IPSarah Morgan

‘They said no three times. I tried again’: I. Stephanie Boyce

In October 2021, I. Stephanie Boyce will become the first black person and the first from an ethnic minority to hold the position of president at the Law Society of England and Wales since its foundation almost 200 years ago.

“I was not an overnight success. But people need to know there is no shame in not being successful the first time,” Boyce says.

It took four attempts before she was successfully elected as deputy vice president of the Law Society, a mandatory first step towards becoming the head of the society. She is now the vice president and will become president of the Law Society in 2021.

“When I got the call that I had been elected as deputy vice president, I was walking away from Chancery Lane. I’d had a couple of years where part of me was thinking ‘just get on with your life’. But when I got the call, I burst into tears, I was so overcome,” she adds.

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