Ingrid Stephanie Boyce was born in 1972 and grew up on a council estate in Buckinghamshire, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. She trained as a solicitor, qualifying in 2002, and built a career specialising in corporate governance and professional regulation, later earning a master of laws in public law and global governance from King's College London.
Boyce joined the Law Society's Council in 2013, representing the Women Lawyers Division, and rose through its ranks over the following years — a path that required four attempts before she was elected deputy vice president in 2019. She became vice president in 2020, and in March 2021 she was elected the Law Society's 177th president: the sixth woman, and the first Black person and first person of colour, ever to hold the role since the Society's founding in 1825.
Her presidency, which ran to October 2022, coincided with the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, continuing Brexit fallout, and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. She used the position to press for greater diversity across the legal profession, launched a three-point plan addressing access to justice, technology and solicitor wellbeing, and spoke openly about the obstacles she had faced on her own path to the top — including the lack of financial and social currency that too often determines who gets ahead in the legal profession.
Since leaving the presidency, Boyce has continued to serve on national bodies including the National Preparedness Commission, and works as a diversity and inclusion advisor, sharing her story to encourage others from under-represented backgrounds into the law.
- First Black person and first person of colour to become President of the Law Society of England and Wales
- Sixth woman to hold the Law Society presidency in its 200-year history
- Led the profession through the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the outbreak of war in Ukraine
- Named on the Powerlist 2021, 2022 and 2023 of Britain's most influential Black people
- Championed access to justice and diversity initiatives across the solicitor profession
- Persistence outlasts rejection. She was elected deputy vice president only on her fourth attempt, after repeated setbacks.
- Visible leadership changes what feels possible. Being the first Black president of a 200-year-old institution reshaped perceptions of who belongs in the profession's top roles.
- Use a platform while you hold it. She built a concrete three-point plan on access to justice, technology and wellbeing rather than treating the presidency as symbolic.