Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) Managing Associate, Paul Armstrong, has been shortlisted for an award at the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) inaugural C4DTI (Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation) Awards.

Paul, who has over 20 years' experience specialising in technology, commercial and corporate matters, has been shortlisted in the Best Advisor of the Year category. The C4DTI Awards supports the objectives of the C4DTI, and will showcase and celebrate global best practice in trade digitalisation.

Paul has been shortlisted for his ongoing work on a pilot project focused on trade between the UK and Singapore. The main objective of the pilot is to achieve interoperability between systems that are digitalizing the process of creating, issuing, transferring, and endorsing bills of lading, using a blockchain-based system to enable secure and efficient sharing of trade-related documents in an immutable format.

The winners will be announced on Tuesday 4 April at a celebratory dinner hosted in the Old Hall at Lincoln’s Inn, London, which coincides with the C4DTI Digital Trade Conference taking place the same week.

C4DTI is an ICC United Kingdom-led, global initiative based at Teesside University established with support from the Tees Valley Combined Authority. It is industry-led, and government supported, working with the ICC Digital Standards Initiative, governments, business groups, companies, and international partners.

Providing an impartial environment in which industry and government can collaborate on practical pilot work to accelerate the pace and scale of digitalisation, C4DTI ensures there is a consistent application of standards, rules and laws and increases the prospects for adoption of digital trading processes in the future.

WBD's digital practice advises clients across many sectors and provides a fully tailored, personal service with clients able to access support ranging from a specific area of legal advice, such as within data protection and privacy law or cyber security law, to a comprehensive source of constant legal advice.

The firm is highly ranked in legal directories and in the Legal 500 published in September, clients described the digital team as having a 'pragmatic and can-do approach' and 'excellent expertise in relation to complex and sophisticated matters.'

In a world where connectivity and collaboration go hand-in-hand, WBD recently launched its re:connect campaign, which provides insights and advice to businesses to help them build operational resilience, minimise data risks and cyber threats, and shape their technology infrastructure to navigate complex regulations in an evolving global environment. Visit our re:connect hub for more information.