diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5e0fed15d..a82f2b6df 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-## 0.7.7-dev2
+## 0.7.7
 
 ### Enhancements
 
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 
 ### Fixes
 
+* Check for the `xml` attribute on `element` before looking for pagebreaks in `partition_docx`.
+
 ## 0.7.6
 
 ### Enhancements
diff --git a/unstructured/__version__.py b/unstructured/__version__.py
index 4f1e2327c..bd4e32c66 100644
--- a/unstructured/__version__.py
+++ b/unstructured/__version__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.7.7-dev2"  # pragma: no cover
+__version__ = "0.7.7"  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/docx.py b/unstructured/partition/docx.py
index 9d73e4675..f5f412e78 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/docx.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/docx.py
@@ -220,9 +220,10 @@ def _element_contains_pagebreak(element) -> bool:
         ["w:br", 'type="page"'],  # "Hard" page break inserted by user
         ["lastRenderedPageBreak"],  # "Soft" page break inserted by renderer
     ]
-    for indicators in page_break_indicators:
-        if all(indicator in element.xml for indicator in indicators):
-            return True
+    if hasattr(element, "xml"):
+        for indicators in page_break_indicators:
+            if all(indicator in element.xml for indicator in indicators):
+                return True
     return False