History

Eugene Judge joined with Horace Priestley in 1889 to form the practice, Judge & Priestley Solicitors, in offices in London. They carried on in partnership until Horace Priestley died in 1923. Eugene's nephew Justin Judge joined the firm and took over after Eugene passed away.

Although these founding fathers of the firm undertook a variety of legal services, right from the beginning they had a debt recovery department. Justin Judge lived in Bromley, and when, during World War II, his offices near Liverpool Street station were destroyed by enemy action, he opened an office in Bromley High Street, and the firm has had a presence in Bromley ever since.

Peter Taylor joined the firm after his naval service in the late 1940s and Justin's two sons Victor Judge, in 1954, and Michael Judge, in 1960, also became partners.

Whilst the firm has always had offices in Bromley since the 1940s, over the years it has also had small offices in Beckenham, Forest Hill, West Norwood, West Wickham and Bloomsbury Square, London. When the present site of its offices in West Street, Bromley, BR1 became available in 1980, it was fitting that they should be called Justin House, after Justin Judge.

Peter Taylor's son, Steven Taylor, acts as the firm's current day Managing Partner.

Since 2000, the business has expanded in the South East London region, assisted by the acquisition of several other renowned local practices. In 2005, Judge & Priestley acquired property specialists Clarke Nurse and in 2008 acquired Bromley based practice Wallis & Co.

The business has been further enhanced more recently by the acquisition of the Chislehurst based practice of Preston, Mellor Harrison in 2017 and the Beckenham located practice of Pritchard, Joyce and Hinds in 2019.

In April of 2021, J&P acquired the business of Cunningham Blake solicitors, a long established practice located in the heart of Blackheath Village. 

Most recently, in October of 2022, J&P merged with Woolsey, Morris and Kennedy Solicitors, the prestigious Sidcup firm located on 100 Station Road, Sidcup, DA15 7DT.

As a result of these acquisitions, J&P currently has four office locations. The Head office remains at Justin House in central Bromley and we also have offices in Beckenham, Blackheath and Sidcup.

We now have 20 Partners and over 200 employees and we look forward to helping our clients with their legal needs both today and in the future.

As we continue to expand, we would like to extend a warm welcome to our new clients from around the South East London / Kent borders including, Chislehurst (BR7), Beckenham (BR3), Blackheath (SE3), Bexley (DA5), Brockley (SE4), Catford (SE6), Charlton (SE7), Crystal Palace (SE19), Dartford (DA1), Eltham (SE9), Greenwich (SE10), Lee (SE12), Lewisham (SE13), Norwood (SE19), Penge (SE20), Orpington (BR5 & BR6), Petts Wood (BR5), Sidcup (DA14 & DA15), Sydenham (SE26), Welling (DA16), West Norwood (SE27) and West Wickham (BR4).