BLS New President 2016/17- Becky Moyce
Becky Moyce was invested as President of BLS at its AGM held in its new offices on 23 November 2016.
Biography
Becky joined Temple Bright LLP as a Partner in January 2011. She is a specialist property litigation lawyer and mainly handles commercial landlord and tenant disputes, property-related insolvency issues and land ownership disputes.
Becky joined BLS Council in December 2012 and became Treasurer in December 2013, a position she held for 2 years.
Outside of work Becky spends most of her time with her young family, she is also a school governor and keen swimmer with a penchant for appearing on quiz shows with varying degrees of success!
A few words from Becky Moyce, President at the AGM:
As we’ve already heard this evening, it’s been a great year and the society continues to go from strength to strength. With the new premises we are afforded a wonderful opportunity to expand our offering to members not only with the mediation suites as John mentioned but also by having the control to run events when and how we want without the constraints previously endured at the Law Library.
During my presidential term I hope to build on the successes of the last few years and to extend our reach to new members and to have a wider engagement with the local community. We all know that access to the profession has been a hot topic in recent months. This will continue to be a challenge. It has always been a concern of mine that the profession for many seems elusive and elitist and entirely beyond reach for those not from wealthy backgrounds, at least not without being prepared to leave university with debts in excess of £30k. Whilst it is better than when I was at university 20 years ago, not enough is being done to change the mindset of children and their families in disadvantaged areas; to persuade them that they can pursue a career in the legal profession.
As part of my year I hope to change this in some small way. I’ve already met with Sue Turner of the Quarter Community Foundation regarding BLS providing support to schools in areas where children’s aspirations don’t include working in the law. In fact we already have 4 schools on board and have supported a careers fayre at 1 school earlier this month. This project is also an opportunity for us to work with UWE who already work on projects with schools and Steve Dinning, Dagmar Steffens and their team are already geared up to support this endeavour. Many of your firms already have programmes which support schools and I certainly hope I can pick your brains about this and rely on your support also. I don’t just want this to be a project for my year but rather a legacy for later years to build on.
It also won’t have escaped your attention that I’m the first female president in a while and indeed, I understand, only the 4th ever. Whilst I don’t want my year to focus entirely on this it is important to ensure that women lawyers are recognised for their abilities and achievements. So don’t be surprised if there is quite a bit of that this year too! Well, it’d be rude not to!
He’ll hate me for this but we can’t let this evening pass without a heartfelt thank you to our Mr Moriarty. It is no exaggeration to say that without him we wouldn’t now be in the new offices. John’s stellar efforts in delivering this have been phenomenal! Indeed, as some may know we could have been without a president this year had John not taken the helm and steered us so well. Safe hands for BLS and big shoes to fill!
Here’s to a great year!
Full details of our new Council can be found here.