Contributors
Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has been shortlisted for two awards at the 2021 Legal Business Awards, with the firm's innovative solutions at the heart of the nominations.
Shortlisted for Insurance Team of the Year, WBD is recognised for its impressive track record of advising insurance industry leaders across a wide range of leading industry projects. With an impressive portfolio of insurer clients, the firm has an established reputation for providing commercial, regulatory and claims management advice to some of the most significant players in the market.
Sushma MacGeoch, Head of Insurance Disputes at WBD, comments:
"WBD has operated in the London Insurance Market for 45 years, delivering practical commercial solutions and excellent client service. Our ability to apply innovative solutions to solve business issues has created significant gains for our insurer clients. More recently, we have identified areas where automation can bring greater efficiencies to the interface between the legal function and business operations, thereby transforming the legal landscape for our clients."
Chris Newby, UK and EMEA General Counsel at AIG, says:
"Womble Bond Dickinson is consistently partnering with our legal team and is at the forefront of our drive to utilise technology to re-model legal services. Womble Bond Dickinson is innovative in its approach and has identified and delivered solutions which have transformed elements of our legal work, freeing up the legal team to focus on strategic issues adding increased value to the business."
WBD is also shortlisted for Legal Technology Team of the Year for its adoption and roll out of e-signatures, which have become a business critical tool during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing national and regional lockdowns. Spearheaded by managing associate Suzanne Gado and practice development manager Katherine Crowley, WBD worked both internally and externally to create a culture of change and enable lawyers and clients to embrace the use of e-signatures.
The firm had acknowledged the potential for e-signature platforms to transform the way in which legal documents can be executed well before the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming an early adopter in the legal sector. The firm was therefore a pioneer in the use of e-signatures and was in a strong position when the use of this technology became a necessity, rather than an innovative option. The implementation of e-signatures has been a success with the firm recording a significant reduction in time taken to achieve document signing – in some cases from 10 days to 48 hours.
Last year, WBD was recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe's most innovative law firms, ranking in Europe's Top 30, for demonstrating innovation for clients in how the law is practised as well as the wide range of programmes run by the firm to support talent, skills and CSR initiatives across the UK and beyond.
