Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP

Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) is a full-service transatlantic law firm, created on 1 November 2017, from the combination of UK law firm Bond Dickinson and US firm Womble Carlyle. The combined firm is now amongst the Top 100 law firms globally and a Top 20 UK law firm.

In the UK, WBD has more than 120 partners and around 450 lawyers based in seven major cities across the country including in London, Bristol, Plymouth, Southampton, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. In the US the firm has 480 lawyers working across 19 offices including Houston, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta and Los Angeles to name a few. The firm’s reach also extends to Europe where it has strategic partnerships with law firms in Germany and France, and through the Lex Mundi network, WBD can offer clients access to counsel in more than 120 countries.

WBD advises over 40 FTSE 350 companies, including many of the largest businesses in the country, government organisations and private clients. The firm advises clients across eleven key sectors including: energy; financial institutions; healthcare; insurance; manufacturing; real estate; retail and consumer; transport, logistics and infrastructure; pharmaceuticals and life sciences; technology; and private wealth.

The firm has a wealth of expertise and a strong track record in all these sectors, enabling it to build strong relationships and deliver an excellent service to clients. This thorough understanding of its clients and of the sectors they operate in, means WBD can anticipate and deliver the right expertise through innovative solutions.

WBD also works closely with UK Local and Central Government authorities, as well as other organisations in the wider public and third sector. The firm advises the UK Government Legal Department, providing a full-service of legal expertise across a range of disciplines, including general commercial, litigation and employment advice. WBD was appointed in Spring 2017 as a Tier 1 firm on the Crown Commercial Service Framework (CCS) for Central Government Departments, Agencies and Arms’ Length Bodies; the firm was also appointed to the CCS Framework for the wider public sector in the Autumn 2018.

In addition, WBD is a member of The Whitehall & Industry Group (WIG), an independent charity that brings business, government and the not-for-profit sector closer together, to learn from each other and co-create solutions. As a law firm advising public, private and not for profit organisations, WBD understands the importance for further cross-sector collaborations and WIG provides the perfect platform to build dialogue and enhance learning and understanding.

WBD has a strong focus on innovation and was ranked in the Top 30 most innovative law firms in Europe by the Financial Times. It has a dedicated Innovation Group that works with lawyers and clients to help identify new opportunities of delivering the best value and coordinate initiatives and projects across the firm that will help drive the business – and its clients – forward.

With this ambition in mind, the firm launched the WBD Advance platform, a flexible solution that pulls together all of the firm’s key technology and business services that are becoming increasingly essential to clients alongside traditional legal advice. These services include support for high-volume projects such as due diligence; document review; project and risk management of legal work; automation and process design; managing knowledge and information; and flexible resourcing including flexible lawyering options for in-house counsel.

WBD is heavily involved in a comprehensive responsible business programme and recognises the importance of supporting projects in its local communities. The firm has an effective environmental policy in place and has received The Planet Mark certification for four years running based on its CO2 emissions reporting. It is also a founding member of the UK’s Legal Sector Alliance. As a gold status member of the Law Society Diversity & Inclusion Charter and holders of the Investors in People Silver standard, the firm is actively engaged in the promotion of a more diverse legal profession and has also been featured in The Lawyer’s Top 200 as a ‘Diversity Pioneer’.

WBD provides its employees with an excellent place to work and recently unveiled its post pandemic working policy, adopting a hybrid working model. Its people have the flexibility to combine home and office working, blending personal preferences with business and clients’ needs.

In a profession not typically known for its diversity or accessibility, WBD is committed to supporting social mobility and creating new routes into the legal profession. It is considered a pioneer in the introduction of legal apprenticeships and was amongst the first to launch a solicitor apprenticeship programme. It currently employs a total of 23 apprentices.

UK offices: Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Newcastle, Plymouth, Southampton.