I. Stephanie Boyce is a solicitor and consultant who in 2021 became the 177th, sixth female and first person of colour to become president of the Law Society of England and Wales. She has been a passionate champion of social mobility, equality, diversity and inclusion throughout her career and continues to campaign for fair and equitable access to justice.
“I have no issue with meritocracy. The difficulty I have with meritocracy is that merit is not being applied fairly or equitably.”
My journey to the law is driven by a firm belief steeped in faith, hope, and a determination to make a difference
I am the daughter and granddaughter of the Windrush generation, people who came to Britain between 1948 and 1973 at the invitation of the British government after the Second World War.
My grandfather came first in 1960, followed by my mother in 1967, and my father came in 1964. Obviously, my parents didn’t know each other at that time, but they came in faith, hope and in search of greater opportunity and upward mobility. So, for me, there was always an emphasis on doing better and being appreciative of my surroundings.
Growing up I was raised in a single-parent household on a council estate, dreaming big. I used to do the best impressions of Margaret Thatcher. She was a barrister, an education minister, our first female prime minister and for a little girl dreaming big, she represented lots of those dreams and practicalities that I aspired to. But let me be clear, I do not in any way condone what she went on to do with some of her policies and the grief and ramifications caused.
As a child, I had a strong sense of what was going on globally and domestically. That awareness grew on the back of apartheid in South Africa, the huge civil rights movement in America, and some of the discrimination that seemed to permeate society. This became clear when we immigrated to America in 1985, and I became aware of abject poverty, of people from low socioeconomic positions who had almost fallen through the cracks, who were almost ignored, unrecognised by society because of how poor they were, because of the colour of their skin.
And I wanted to make a difference, and that, I think it’s fair to say, has driven me in my pursuit of justice, in my pursuit of access to justice, and speaking up for people whose voices I feel have been silenced or not heard.
I qualified as a solicitor in 2002, went in-house as a practitioner in 2004 with the General Council of the Bar, and set up my own consultancy in 2017, having taken time to immerse myself in the workings of the Law Society. I was elected to the Law Society’s Council in 2013, put myself forward for the first time as deputy vice president in 2015, and was successfully elected to that post in 2019, taking my historical seat at the table and becoming president in March 2021.
Redefining leadership as the sixth woman and first person of colour to become president of the Law Society
As the 177th president, the sixth female, the first Black, and the first person of colour to become president of the Law Society of England and Wales, my election signified change. It redefined what leadership looks like. That’s one of the things I think about a lot – who we put in positions of power and influence, what we think they should look like, sound like, act like.
It took me four attempts to get there for a number of reasons, including that some people did not feel I reflected what the presidency of the society should be. My presidency was transformative, it was impactful. I was visible and I was determined to be judged by my actions and not my words, and to leave a lasting legacy of change. I believe I’ve done that and I’m still doing that, building on that amazing platform gave me and I will always be grateful for that opportunity.
Recent challenges to equality, diversity and inclusion efforts
What we’ve seen recently is concerning. With the stroke of a pen on 20th January 2025, there was an Executive Order 14151 in America to end so-called “radical and wasteful government DEI programs.” That was quickly followed by a second order, 14168, claiming to “defend women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
What that has done, and is doing, is leaving some people feeling locked out and left behind. We’ve since seen a number of companies taking action to roll back on their EDI practices. I prefer to call it EDI because I believe if you’ve got equity or equality, then diversity and inclusion will follow.
These executive orders are targeting any evidence of what they consider may violate federal discrimination law, relying on public-facing materials like websites and press releases to find evidence. What most of these companies have done is erase the word or the acronym “EDI” or “diversity.” We’ve seen lots of that going on with companies based here in the United Kingdom. Some people, including me, have scratched our heads thinking: “How’s that? You are based here. You should adhere to our laws, not what is being pushed out across the ocean.”
What I would say to people who have raised concerns with me around companies who have either fallen silent, capitulated, or rolled back EDI efforts to a certain extent – it doesn’t matter what you call it, but I think we need to be better at explaining what EDI efforts are designed to do. They are not designed to benefit some groups to the detriment of others. It’s to make work better, more equitable, and fairer for everyone.
For those who have rolled back, rather than just saying, “We’re still going to do this but we’re going to do it differently,” we need to hold them to account and ensure that it doesn’t become a tick-box exercise or just empty words. We need to ensure that through their policies and their actions, they’re making real positive change.
We saw this year that statements were more muted, especially around partnership promotions in law firms. Some firms who would normally come out and say, “We’ve promoted [this many] women” or such were much quieter this year because of some of this rollback on EDI. But what I say to firms, businesses, organisations and academic institutions is: stand firm. We in the United Kingdom pride ourselves on the diversity of the society we seek to serve. That must mean having representative policies and practices that ensure the best talent is being put forward, and where there are barriers or hurdles – seen and unseen – that they are being addressed to make a more level, equitable playing field.
The exploitation of societal divisions
We need to be better at explaining EDI efforts and why they exist – they’re not designed to benefit some groups to the detriment of others but to make the workplace better for everyone. We should all be seeking ways to build healthy, inclusive workplace cultures where everyone can do their best and thrive.
The difficulty is that we’ve gone from being armchair TV critics in the privacy of our homes to keyboard warriors, where at the stroke of a keyboard or the push of a button, our voice, thoughts, and opinions are amplified thousands of times to the world at large. After being locked down for so long during COVID, people’s social filters have disappeared. The reality is some people get a thrill from being offensive and sowing division, people who will create a narrative to suit their agenda.
Politicians have an absolute role to play in this. I believe most politicians should probably consider staying off of social media and television unless they have a positive contribution to make and can stick to the facts, some of the more emotive language we see being used is not helpful. Politicians, are our elected representatives, elected in our names to represent our interests, and are supposed to set an example not to create more division and strife.
When you watch Prime Minister’s Question Time, the exchange between the leaders of all parties has become even more hostile and degrading. Politicians must be alive to the fact that some people will not recognise the robustness of those debates as simply being robust exchanges. Senior leaders have a responsibility to those they are seeking to serve, to tone it down and set a better example as senior leaders in positions of power and influence.
The situation has been worsened by echo chambers in social media. Statistics showed that 39% of people did not get their news from mainstream media like the BBC or ITV, and that figure has probably increased. An internal report reportedly produced by TikTok suggested that “…regular use of its app leads to loss of analytical skills, memory function, contextual thinking, and conversational depth…” – all of what makes us human and rational.
Why do we have no real regulation around AI or social media in this country? In China, if you are under a certain age, from 10 o’clock your social media is switched off. We talk about protecting our children and the next generation, but there is an epidemic going on with our young people. My concern is the discourse being driven between those who have and those who have not. The damage to our physical and mental health is caused by algorithms and how many likes you may or may not get.
Impact on governance and compliance
Organisations should be focusing on embedding EDI into their systems, processes, practices and cultures. They should have a set of strategic, data-driven goals around their initiatives. If you have an objective, there must be a target against that objective.
We saw many law firms saying, “We want to have [X] amount of Black, female, etc. partners by [this date]” or “10% of [such-and-such]”, but at times there is no real substance behind it, no strategy as to how that is going to be achieved. We need to ensure there are systems and processes in place where employees, prospective employees and indeed customers and clients can see that what you say and what you do are measured and are being transformed into policies and practices that ensure equity.
The common issue we are trying to eradicate is discrimination. Most people want equity and equality of opportunity. But as I’ve always said, it’s not my rights at the detriment of other people’s rights.
We’re hearing cries of “What about me? What about me?” People are getting left behind in terms of some of the policies and practices we’re seeing, and that is driving not only anxiety but anger. What we need to do is ensure that as a country, we have equitable outcomes or at least an aspiration to. Too many of our children are living in poverty. People should be able to live in decent housing, get good access to healthcare, have a good education, and have good future career prospects. We are not currently fulfilling the social contract that we promised our citizens.
I used to say a long time ago that we as a country have to decide what type of society we are – are we capitalists or are we socialists? We can’t sit on the fence with our feet in both camps because we get what we’ve got now, which is that great disparity between the rich and the poor and growing resentment.
A number of measures have to be enacted to try and even that out, but it’s got to be in a way that’s equitable because we need the rich to pay the taxes to support some of the initiatives we need to undertake. But if reports are accurate, there’s been an exodus of the wealthy leaving this country for various reasons.
We also need people to have prospects. One of the things I talk about is raising aspirations amongst our citizens. People have to feel that they have something to work towards, that there is something at the end of it. We need to ensure that we have a tax system that properly taxes organisations. It’s inequitable that an individual making little profit should pay more corporation tax than a multi-billion-pound profit global organisation.
Shareholders have a role to play too. We’ve seen shareholder activism in different ways over the years. Shareholders are members of our society and therefore should exercise their judgment to ensure that their companies act ethically. EDI is just as important as climate change or any other environmental or social activism. We have seen some shareholders speak out against their companies purported rollback on various issues and I would expect shareholders to continue to raise their voices on these important issues.
One of my favourite quotes: In a world where we can be anything, I believe we should just be kind. We need to work towards listening more, being more patient and kinder to one another. That’s how we’ll create the change we need to see.
