Janet Day, the head of IT at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), has won the British Computer Society’s (BCS) IT Director of the Year award – the first time that a law firm manager has won the coveted accolade.

To win the award, Day had to beat off strong competition – the other finalists were Deutsche Bank’s Martin Yates; Stewart Pownall from Pilkingtons; and Stuart Walters from Opodo, the online travel agent.