Judith Thompson

Judith is a well-established and very experienced litigator. She grew up in North Devon and attended university in the South East of England where she obtained a degree in History, and a master's degree in English, before converting to the Law.

She trained with a large South East firm, and qualified as a solicitor in their highly-respected dispute resolution team in 2002. She later moved on to work for a Top 50 law firm, specialising in commercial litigation and professional negligence claims, before returning to her North Devon roots in 2011 to work for Samuels Solicitors. Judith became a partner in Samuels in 2013 and now is the partner in charge of managing the firm.

For some years now, Judith has specialised in reputation management work, primarily dealing with defamation cases, which encompasses libel and slander. Her expertise in this area has been recognised with her being nominated as The Times newspaper's lawyer of the week in June 2024. 

She has advised a wide range of individuals, including well-known TV and radio personalities, premiership footballers, front and back bench members of parliament, social media influencers, authors and musicians, local politicians, professional athletes, reality TV personalities, high profile professionals, as well as many others. 

Judith has advised clients with claims against national television companies including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, national and local newspapers, and social media companies.

She also helps clients block unwanted material from the internet via right to be forgotten applications and appeals to the Information Commissioner's Office, as well as dealing with serious harassment cases.

Her reputation management work regularly includes advising clients about complex and sensitive breach of privacy issues, including the sharing of intimate images and videos in what used to be called "revenge porn" cases, but are now better referred to as "image based abuse". She has assisted many clients with the removal of personal images and other material from a wide range of websites, some of which have been published maliciously and for profit.

Judith also deals with complex commercial litigation matters, including professional negligence claims and contested probate matters, and has taken cases to the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal (such as the nationally reported professional negligence case of Padden v Bevan Ashford).

Judith’s particular strength is dealing with complex, high-value and challenging cases, whilst maintaining a calm and unflappable approach, which is very much appreciated by clients.

Judith is a keen musician and plays a number of instruments. She enjoys boxing several times a week, and is very well-travelled, but hasn’t yet found a beach to beat ours in North Devon, where she can be found most weekends, playing with her kids and dog.

Judith will call you back or you can send an email directly to: jmt@samuels-solicitors.co.uk