Judy runs Rock Management Services, which provides back office services including but not limited to compliance, HR, finance, ICT and marketing support to law firms. Rock MS is also the team behind Bedrock, its practice management system for the legal sector.

Few people know the operational side of a legal aid practice better. Judy joined Reeds Solicitors in 2009, when it was a single-office criminal legal aid firm in Oxford. As the Practice Manager, working closely with the board of directors, she orchestrated the growth of the company into one of the largest criminal defence providers in England and Wales, with 22 offices and practices in Crime, Prison Law, Family Law, Court of Protection and Mental Health. In 2019 she moved the firm’s operations team into a company of its own, and Rock MS was born. In 2024 it launched Bedrock, built on 15 years of first-hand experience of what busy legal practices need from their systems.

Judy works on the detail as well as the strategy. She is closely involved in Cyber Essentials, Lexcel and UK GDPR compliance, LAA and SRA requirements, procurement and people management. Her view is that a firm’s lawyers do their best work when everything around them runs smoothly.

She thinks the same applies to her own team. Wellbeing and work–life balance aren’t just policies at Rock MS. They shape how the business is run.

Before moving into law, Judy studied Law & Administration and worked in constructions, project management, including preparing London’s transport infrastructure for the 2012 Olympics. Outside of work, Judy likes to exercise which includes yoga, triathlons and Olympic weightlifting.