WBD named as top 50 most innovative law firm by Financial Times

Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has been recognised in the FT Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe 2019 and ranked 33rd in the FT’s Top 50 Most Innovative Law Firms.

The FT Innovative Lawyers Report represents a unique analysis of the legal industry through interviews, extensive research and analysis including robust client, independent and expert references.

WBD, which has offices in Newcastle, was highly commended in the ‘Innovation in legal expertise: Enabling business growth and transformation’ category which recognised the firm’s support of Newcastle City Council with its national pathfinder project supported by the National Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Trust to transform the business delivery model for its parks and open spaces. WBD worked in collaboration with the in-house team at Newcastle City Council to set up a new charitable trust to operate and manage the City’s parks and allotments.

WBD was also shortlisted in the ‘Innovation in the business of law: New business and service delivery models’ which focuses on the firm’s launch of WBD Advance which has been designed to bring together all of the key technology and business services that are becoming increasingly essential to clients. The platform allows the firm to help clients with large volume projects, automation and process design, project and risk management; knowledge and data management and increased capability and flexible resource.

Nigel Emmerson, head of innovation at WBD (pictured), said: “It is fantastic to have received this recognition for major projects where we have demonstrated innovative thinking and initiative. We firmly believe the legal sector needs to embrace innovation in order to remain competitive, relevant and progressive.”

“Our Innovation Group is focused on identifying potential innovation opportunities and coordinates initiatives and projects across the firm. However the pace of change across the sector means that we need to keep challenging ourselves to think differently about how we can deliver the most value to our clients and our people.”