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 an honours degree in History, and a masters 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 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.

For some years now, Judith has specialised in reputation management work, primarily dealing with libel and slander cases, the right to be forgotten and appeals to the Information Commissioner's Office.

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 has advised a wide range of individuals, including well-known social media influencers, TV and radio personalities, musicians, Premiership footballers, high profile professionals, and many others. 

Her reputation management work regularly includes advising clients about breach of privacy issues. 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.

Judith also deals with more general commercial litigation, including professional negligence claims, and she 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 twice 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.