Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP

Chris McLauchlan

Chris is a partner leading the Scottish Banking team which covers: real estate finance (investment and development); corporate lending; acquisition finance; asset-based lending; securitisation; loan note and bond issues; debt trading; debt portfolio transfers; and restructuring deals. He has over 20 years of experience acting for borrowers and lenders (including clearing banks, investment banks, investment funds and insurance companies) on Scottish and English transactions. Chris is a cross-border financing specialist (UK and international) and has worked in Scotland, England and Australia.

Emily Pike

Partner Emily is an experienced private client lawyer who specialises in providing personal legal advice on wills, trusts and estate planning. She also advises banks, insurance companies and professional trustees, both onshore and offshore, on aspects of trust law. Emily trained at the firm and has specialised in private client work since she qualified in 2008. She has a diverse client base covering Scotland, the North of England and further afield. Emily’s main area of expertise is providing advice to entrepreneurs and business families, including owners of landed estates. She takes a particular interest in the challenges facing family business owners as they seek to pass wealth through the generations, advising on succession issues and planning for the future. Emily is a qualified Trust and Estate Practitioner and a member of STEP, the worldwide professional association for those advising families across generations.  She is dual qualified in Scotland and England & Wales and is a Scottish Notary Public.

Jonny Williams

Jonny is a partner and head of the firm's national financial services team. He has spent the majority of his career  working in the legal team of two large financial institutions in various senior leadership roles, advising on a broad range of regulatory issues and leading on key strategic projects in the UK and overseas. He advises a wide range of financial institutions on financial services regulation, specialising in product development, perimeter issues, authorisations, payments, financial crime prevention, regulatory investigations/enforcements and general commercial issues. He also regularly advises on the regulatory issues arising from acquisitions and disposals.

Lisa Dromgoole

Partner Lisa heads up the construction and engineering practice in Scotland, specialising in dispute resolution for a wide variety of public and private sector clients. She has extensive experience in all forms of dispute resolution from adjudication and arbitration to litigation, mediation and other forms of ADR. Lisa is particularly regarded for high value, complex adjudication matters acting for clients across the UK. Lisa has an LLM in Construction Law.

Paul Mason

Paul is a Partner in the real estate team demonstrating an outstanding level of technical ability over all sectors of real estate work – he has particular expertise in commercial property and the energy sector, advising clients across the private and public sectors.  In addition, he has developed a detailed understanding of property finance issues.

Richard Cockburn

Richard, a partner based in our Edinburgh office, is in the energy and natural resources team. In clean energy, he advises developers, the supply chain and funders in projects across the sector such as onshore and offshore wind, low carbon heat, solar generation and battery storage. His experience also spans upstream and service sector work in oil and gas and he has particular expertise in hydrogen and carbon, capture and storage projects. Richard is dual qualified in Scotland and England and Wales. He has practised in the city of London, Brussels and Scotland.

Richard Pike

Richard is a partner in WBD's Private Wealth department, specialising in disputes about trusts and inheritance. His clients are based all around the UK and internationally, and include high net worth individuals, professional trustees, financial institutions, and insurers. His cases invariably involve high value trusts and estates, complex asset holding structures, real estate assets, and assets held across multiple jurisdictions.  As well as acting in litigation in the UK courts, Richard has been involved in trust litigation in the courts of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Richard's expertise covers the full gamut of scenarios that arise when trusts and estates become contentious, from will validity disputes and claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, to complex disputes involving proprietary estoppel allegations, the removal of trustees and allegations of breach of trust. His cases include professional negligence claims, contract disputes and tax litigation for private clients and organisations involved in the private client sector. As well as dispute resolution work, Richard is also regularly called upon to advise professional trustees and banks on the scope of their powers and duties when acting as trustee or executor of an estate.