I. Stephanie Boyce
Ingrid Stephanie Boyce or I. Stephanie Boyce as she is professionally known (born 1972) is a British solicitor. In March 2021 she became the 177th individual, the sixth female, and the first black and the first person of colour to be President of the Law Society of England and Wales.[1]
Life
Boyce is of Caribbean descent. Her mother, born on the island of Saint Vincent,[2] came to England aged 15 in 1967 to join her parents, who had emigrated there.[1] I. Boyce's father had come to the UK from Barbados three years earlier.[2] I. Boyce was born in Aylesbury, where she was brought up in a single-parent household on a council estate.[1] The footballer Emmerson Boyce is her younger brother.[3] In her teens, the family relocated to the United States, where she lived for six years before returning to the UK to study law. She gained a LLB from London Guildhall University in 1999, and passed the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law, Guildford.[1] She was admitted as a solicitor in 2002. She is the director of Stephanie Boyce Consulting Limited (10866503 - incorporated on 14 July 2017), a micro-entity company advising on not-for-profit management and governance.[4]
Law Society
Boyce was elected Deputy Vice President of the Law Society in 2019, taking up the post in July 2019.[4] She became the society's vice president in 2020, and its president in March 2021.[5]
In May 2021 I. Boyce said that Priti Patel's plans to penalise asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom by "so-called irregular routes" risked a "two tier asylum system" in breach of international law and the Refugee Convention.[6] After the Queen's Speech at the 2021 State Opening of Parliament announced government plans to limit the powers of Judicial review in England and Wales, she said that the proposals "would allow unlawful acts by government or public bodies to be untouched or untouchable" and "risk taking power away from citizens".[7]
References
- ^ a b c d Paul Rogerson (3 May 2021). "Profiles: First Impression". Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ a b Tania Broughton. "Leading through Change". africa-legal.com. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ News784 (7 May 2019). "Stephanie Boyce Elected Deputy VP Of The British Law Society". News784. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "I. Stephanie Boyce, our new Deputy Vice President of the Law Society & Past Hon Secretary of WHLS". Central London Lawyer. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ ""The trail is ready to be blazed": new Law Society president sets out ambitious agenda for change". 19 March 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ May Bulman (7 May 2021). "Patel's asylum plans 'pose serious threat' to rule of law and 'undermine access to justice', warns Law Society". The Independent. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ Jane Croft; George Parker (18 May 2021). "Legal profession sounds alarm over judicial review bill". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 July 2021.