Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has strengthened its Private Wealth team in Newcastle with the recruitment of Alison Bragg who joins from Nicholson Portnell in Hexham.

Alison is a highly experienced private client lawyer with wide-ranging expertise in tax and estate planning. She advises business owners, farmers and landowners, high net worth individuals and trustees. She is also the former Chair of the North East and Cumbria branch of STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), which is the global professional association for practitioners specialising in family inheritance and succession planning.

Will Bonas, a Partner in WBD's Private Wealth team in Newcastle commented:

"We're delighted to welcome Alison into the firm and to our long-established Private Wealth team. The breadth and depth of expertise which she brings on complex tax, succession and estate planning issues will strengthen our offering to clients here in the North East and more widely across the UK."

Alison said:

"WBD's Private Wealth team has an impressive client portfolio, and unrivalled expertise in the region. I look forward to working with the team and I'm thrilled about this next stage of my career."

WBD was ranked highly in last year's Chambers High Net Worth guide and recognised for having a 'massive private client capability nationally' and for being described as "the go-to firm" in the North East with ten of the firm's lawyers recognised as 'leading individuals' including Newcastle-based Helen Tavroges, Deborah Jude, George Lyall and Susan Maxey.

Ranking in the UK's top 20 law firms, WBD has deep roots in the North East which is home to its largest UK office in which around 450 people are based. It is committed to playing its part in the future prosperity of the North East and Cumbria by using its local, national and international reach and expertise to benefit the region's leading sectors, businesses, people and organisations.

Alison Bragg