Rudolph started law-school at the age of 41 and re-trained as a barrister, since when he has practised in immigration law, focussing mainly on asylum and human rights at One Pump Court in London. He is a regular fixture in the First-tier and Upper Tribunals and appeared in the current country guidance cases on the persecution risks for returnees to post-civil war Sri Lanka (2013) and Iranian Kurds (2018). Before coming to the Bar, he had a varied work history as a freelance lexicographer, research assistant on the Survey of English Usage at University College London (1989-90), Teacher of English and the methodology of teaching in China (1991-1994), and a local government officer at the London Boroughs of Camden (1995-6) and Hammersmith & Fulham (1996-2005).