Lexcel · CQS · Children’s Panel Davies House, 4 Hillside Business Park, Kempson Way, Bury St Edmunds IP32 7EA 01284 755771
Rudlings Solicitors · Bury St Edmunds · since 1923 Request a call back 01284 755771
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk · since 1923 · four offices, six partners

A 103-year East Anglia practice, at Davies House, Bury St Edmunds.

Rudlings was founded in 1923 and has been a Suffolk and Norfolk firm ever since. The Bury St Edmunds office at Davies House, on Hillside Business Park, is the home of our Wills and Probate, Commercial and Children’s Law teams. We are Lexcel, CQS and Law Society Children’s Panel accredited, with on-site parking, an A14 junction five minutes away, and a Children’s Law team that is one of the largest in the East of England.

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1923 103 years of East Anglia practice
Lexcel Law Society practice-management standard
CQS Conveyancing Quality Scheme
Children's Panel Law Society Children's Law accreditation
Davies House · Hillside Business Park
4 Hillside Business Park Kempson Way
103 years of East Anglia practice
4.8★ 838 reviews on file, Bury office
6 partners, four offices
IP32 Bury, Stowmarket, Newmarket, Sudbury
What we do at Davies House

Four lines of work, run from the Bury St Edmunds office.

Each of the four departments below has a Head of Department based at Davies House. The solicitor who answers the first call is the solicitor who signs the engagement letter and stays on the file. There is no triage layer between you and a partner.

01 · Children's Law (Care)

Children's Panel work, public-law care, separate representation.

Richard Bevan and Victoria Lord lead one of the largest dedicated children's law teams in the East of England, accredited members of the Law Society Children's Panel. We act for parents in s.31 care applications, for children directly under separate-representation orders, and we work day-to-day with CAFCASS guardians. Private-law children-arrangements work sits in the same department, so the same solicitor stays on the file from first contact through to the final order.

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02 · Wills, Trusts and Probate

A will written once, reviewed when life changes.

Cassie Arbour leads the team. We draft and review wills with a sit-down conversation rather than an online form, set up and administer family trusts, and deal with the full estate-administration process after a death, including the Grant of Probate, executor support, Inheritance Tax returns, and the distribution itself. The solicitor who drafts the will stays on the file when probate is needed, sometimes a decade or more later.

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03 · Residential Conveyancing (CQS)

Sale, purchase, transfer of equity, new-build.

Shazad Butt leads. We hold the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation, the audited senior conveyancing standard. Sale, purchase, transfer of equity, remortgage, leasehold and freehold, new-build. SDLT returns and the AP1 to the Land Registry are handled on the day; lender coordination on completion happens from this office. Fixed quotes at the start of the file, no hourly billing.

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04 · Commercial Law

Business sale, commercial leases, partnership documents.

Steven McGrath and Jason Sidney head the commercial department jointly. Business sales and purchases (asset and share), commercial leases for both landlords and tenants, shareholder and partnership agreements, franchise documents, and the day-to-day commercial conveyancing that sits alongside business transactions. We act for owner-managed businesses across West Suffolk, the A14 corridor, and the wider East Anglia commercial belt.

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A century in Suffolk and Norfolk

Founded 1923. Four offices today. One firm.

Rudlings has been a Suffolk and Norfolk solicitors’ practice since 1923. For most of that century the firm traded as Rudlings Wakelam, building offices in Brandon, Thetford and Bury St Edmunds across the Suffolk-Norfolk borderlands. In 2019 the practice incorporated as a Limited Liability Partnership (Companies House OC426871) and in October 2025 it shed the Wakelam trailing name to rebrand simply as Rudlings, with a refreshed identity across all four offices.

The firm today has six partners and more than seventy legal professionals. Day to day, the Bury St Edmunds office at Davies House is the home of our Wills and Probate, Commercial and Children’s Law work, with Conveyancing run from here as well. The other three offices are at 73 High Street, Brandon, at 1 Well Street, Thetford, and at 8 Ber Street, Norwich.

“Our new brand is more than just a visual update, it is a reflection of what we have grown to become. We are proud of our 100-year heritage, but equally, we are excited about our future.” Steven McGrath, Partner · Suffolk News, October 2025
The specialism, in detail

One of the largest dedicated Children’s Law teams in the East of England.

Richard Bevan leads the Children’s Law department from Davies House, with Victoria Lord as Partner Solicitor. The Bury team holds Law Society Children’s Panel accreditation, the senior children’s law mark, and takes both public-law care work and private-law children-arrangements files.

01

Public-law care proceedings under s.31

We represent parents in care and supervision applications brought by the local authority, from the first Letter Before Proceedings (the PLO letter) through the Issues Resolution Hearing and Final Hearing. Legal aid is available regardless of means for parents in care proceedings, and we deal with the LAA application directly so the funding is in place before the first hearing.

02

Separate representation for children, CAFCASS liaison

Where the court orders separate representation, we act directly for the child or the children, working day-to-day with the CAFCASS Children’s Guardian. We hold the Law Society Children’s Panel accreditation that this work specifically requires; not every family firm in West Suffolk is on the Panel.

03

Private-law Children Act work: lives-with and spends-time-with orders

The same department handles Children Act 1989 s.8 applications: lives-with orders (formerly residence), spends-time-with orders (formerly contact), prohibited steps and specific issue orders. We act for parents on either side of a separation, and we keep the file with the same solicitor through MIAM, mediation and any FHDRA / DRA hearings.

Law Society Children’s Panel
accredited members
The accreditation on file

The Children’s Panel is an audited specialism, not a marketing claim.

The Law Society Children’s Panel is the senior accreditation for solicitors acting in children-law proceedings. Panel membership is the standard the court expects when separate representation is ordered for a child, and it is what the LAA looks for in publicly-funded care work. Rudlings holds it; not all family firms in the Bury catchment do. The accreditation, the Lexcel practice-management mark and the Conveyancing Quality Scheme together place the firm in a small minority of market-town practices in East Anglia.

The Bury St Edmunds team

The heads of department at Davies House.

Six solicitors run the four Bury departments. The one who answers your first call is the one who stays on your file.

CA Cassie Arbour Head of Wills, Trusts & Probate STEP-style estate work
SM Steven McGrath Partner, Head of Commercial Business sale, leases, franchise
JS Jason Sidney Partner, Head of Commercial Shareholder & partnership agreements
SB Shazad Butt Head of Conveyancing CQS accredited
RB Richard Bevan Head of Children's Law (Care) Law Society Children's Panel
VL Victoria Lord Partner Solicitor, Children's Law Public-law care proceedings
Send an enquiry

Tell us briefly what you need. We come back the same working day.

The form goes straight to the Bury St Edmunds office. The solicitor who picks it up will reply with a written quote, a realistic timetable, and the names of the disbursements we expect on the file. Initial conversations are confidential and free of charge.

  • Reply by close of the same working day, Monday to Friday.
  • Or ring the Bury office directly on 01284 755771.
  • For urgent Children’s Law matters (PLO letters, social-services correspondence) we triage on the day.
  • For probate, we can take instructions by post or video if you cannot come to Davies House in person.

Send a Bury St Edmunds enquiry

By sending this enquiry you agree we may store it for the purpose of replying. Nothing here forms a retainer; that only happens after a written engagement letter.

Thank you. Your enquiry has reached the Bury St Edmunds office. We will reply from a Rudlings address by close of the same working day.

Find us

Davies House, Bury St Edmunds

Davies House
4 Hillside Business Park
Kempson Way
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
IP32 7EA

Office 01284 755771

Email info@rudlingsllp.co.uk

Parking free on-site bays directly in front of Davies House

By car A14 Junction 44 is around five minutes away

Town centre Abbey Gardens and the Cornhill are a six-minute drive

SRA 662788 (Bury St Edmunds office)

Davies House, 4 Hillside Business Park, Kempson Way, IP32 7EA. Five minutes from A14 J44; free on-site parking. Open in Google Maps ↗
When we answer

Monday to Friday, working hours. Urgent care matters triaged on the day.

Monday to Friday Office working hours · phone and email answered from Davies House
Saturday, Sunday Office closed · email triaged Monday morning
Urgent care work PLO letters and social-services correspondence triaged the same day during the working week
By arrangement Evening appointments for clients who cannot get to Davies House during office hours

Speak to a solicitor, not a switchboard. The Bury number 01284 755771 reaches the office reception, then the relevant department head. There is no off-site call centre and no triage layer; the firm has six partners and seventy legal professionals, but the file does not move sideways between them.

Tap to call · 01284 755771
Frequently asked

Five questions worth answering before you instruct.

I am a parent. Social services have started proceedings. Can Rudlings act for me?

Yes. Richard Bevan and Victoria Lord lead the Children’s Law team from the Bury St Edmunds office and are accredited members of the Law Society’s Children’s Panel. We routinely act for parents in s.31 care proceedings under legal aid, and we can take instructions on the same day a Letter Before Proceedings (PLO letter) lands. Ring 01284 755771 and ask for the Children’s Law team; if neither solicitor is free we will call you back the same working day.

How much will conveyancing on a Bury St Edmunds or West Suffolk sale or purchase cost?

Our conveyancing fees are fixed at the start of the file rather than billed hourly. The fee depends on whether the property is freehold or leasehold, whether there is a mortgage, and the price band. Shazad Butt and the Bury conveyancing team send a written quote on the same working day, with every disbursement (Land Registry fees, search packs, SDLT) itemised up front so there are no surprises on completion.

Can I have a will and a Lasting Power of Attorney done at the same appointment?

Yes, and most clients in our catchment prefer it. We block a single appointment with Cassie Arbour or the Wills team to take instructions on the will and on both LPAs (property and finance, plus health and welfare), then draft both within the same week. Registration of the LPAs at the Office of the Public Guardian takes around eight to ten weeks; the will is signed and witnessed sooner.

Where exactly is Davies House, and what is parking like?

Davies House is on Hillside Business Park, off Kempson Way, on the eastern edge of Bury St Edmunds in the IP32 postcode. Free on-site parking sits directly in front of the building, a sharp contrast to the metered Cornhill and Angel Hill parking that the high-street firms charge their clients. Junction 44 of the A14 is about five minutes away by car; the historic town centre and Abbey Gardens are a six-minute drive in.

What does the rebrand from Rudlings Wakelam to Rudlings actually change for clients?

Nothing about the people on your file. The firm, the SRA registrations, the six partners, the four offices and the underlying practice all carry over. The rebrand in October 2025 was a visual refresh that brings the four offices under a single Rudlings identity. The phone numbers, email addresses, accreditations and ongoing files are unchanged. If you have correspondence headed Rudlings Wakelam, it is still us.