Black History Month invites us to reflect not only on the history we have inherited, but also on the stories that have been overlooked, the voices that have gone unheard, and the contributions that deserve to be recognised.
For generations, the story of the legal profession has been told through familiar faces: the judges whose decisions shape the law, the names that appear in case reports, and the portraits that adorn chambers and courtroom walls. Yet women of colour have long been part of this profession, making significant contributions that have too often gone unrecognised, unrecorded or overlooked.
This matters because the legal profession is shaped not only by the law itself, but also by the stories we tell about its history and the people who have helped to shape it. As a profession that relies on precedent, the past inevitably influences how we understand the present and imagine the future. The names we learn and the achievements we celebrate shape our sense of who belongs. When the stories we hear reflect only a narrow picture of the profession, women from underrepresented backgrounds can be left feeling that they were never expected to be part of it. Reclaiming these narratives means looking beyond the familiar accounts, recognising the women whose contributions have been overlooked, and ensuring that their stories form part of the profession’s history and its future.
Black women who changed the legal professionStella Thomas
In 1933, Stella Thomas was called to the Bar by Middle Temple, becoming the first Black African woman called to the Bar of England and Wales. Born in Lagos and schooled in Freetown, she came to England to study at a time when very few Black women did, let alone on their own.
She did not stop there. As a student, she helped to found the League of Coloured Peoples, a civil rights organisation for African, Asian and Caribbean communities in Britain. She also spoke publicly about the relationship between colonial powers and African people, at a time when women like her were rarely given a platform. She later returned to West Africa, where she became the region’s first woman lawyer and, in 1943, its first woman magistrate. She served on the bench until she retired in 1971.
Her story matters because she never treated the law as just a career. She used it to serve her community and to make sure her voice was heard. It also reminds us that BAME women are not new to this profession. We have been part of it for almost a hundred years, even if the history books have not always said so.
Dame Linda Dobbs
Born in Sierra Leone, Linda Dobbs moved to the UK at the age of seven and studied music before switching to law. Called to the Bar in 1981, she built a practice in fraud and white-collar crime. As Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, she set up its first equality and diversity sub-committee, and in 2004 she became the UK’s first non-white High Court judge.
On her appointment, she said she was confident she would be “the first of many to come”. It took seven years for another ethnic minority judge to join her on the High Court bench, but she was right. Since retiring, she has continued to train judges and lawyers around the world.
Her story shows that achieving success and opening doors for others go hand in hand. She did not just reach the top; she used her position to change the structures around her so that others could follow.
Where we are todaySince then, many more women have added to the story. In 1991, Baroness Scotland became the first Black woman to take silk. In 2021, Stephanie Boyce became the first Black president of the Law Society. In 2022, Jessikah Inaba became the UK’s first Black, blind female barrister, having completed her training using Braille.
But the story is not only about firsts. Every day, BAME women are leading teams, running their own practices, advising clients, mentoring trainees and building networks that did not exist a generation ago. Jacqui Rhule-Dagher, a litigation solicitor at Hogan Lovells, has spoken about how her experiences made her more determined and resilient, and about reverse mentoring her firm’s managing partner during her training contract. Her advice to anyone entering law is simple: don’t shrink yourself to make others comfortable.
SRA data shows that BAME lawyers made up 20% of lawyers in law firms in 2025, up from 14% in 2015, and 19% of partners. There is still work to do, particularly at the largest firms and for Black lawyers, but BAME women are not waiting on the sidelines. We are already shaping the profession. Our backgrounds, languages, faiths and routes into law all differ, and reclaiming the narrative means making room for every one of those stories.
Looking aheadVisibility: You cannot be what you cannot see. Every BAME woman who speaks on a panel, writes an article or takes on a senior role makes the path clearer for the woman behind her.
Mentorship: A good mentor shares what she has learnt so that others do not have to figure it out alone. It can work both ways, too: reverse mentoring gives senior leaders insight into experiences they may never have had.
Sponsorship: Where a mentor gives advice, a sponsor takes action. A sponsor puts their name behind yours in rooms you are not yet in.
Community: Spaces like this one, where women share their experiences and lift each other up, are where narratives are truly reclaimed. When one woman shares her story, wins included, she makes it easier for the next woman to share hers.
None of this should stop at the end of Black History Month. These conversations need to happen all year round.
Writing what comes nextIn 1933, Stella Thomas stood in Middle Temple Hall in a profession that had not imagined someone like her. Just over seventy years later, Linda Dobbs took her seat on the High Court bench and said she would be the first of many. Today, a new generation of BAME women is studying, qualifying, leading and building.
Reclaiming narratives is not only about recognising the past. It is about shaping the future. BAME women should not just be part of the story; we should be the ones writing it.
Our history matters, and so does what we write next.
