Womble Bond Dickinson

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Womble Bond Dickinson
Womble Bond Dickinson logo.png
Headquarters London
No. of offices27 [1]
No. of attorneys940 [1]
Major practice areasGeneral practice
Key peopleBetty Temple, Chair and CEO & Paul Stewart, UK Managing Partner
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$ 475M (2017) [1]
Date founded1876
Company type Limited Liability Partnership
Websitewomblebonddickinson.com

Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm formed in 2017 as a result of a merger between UK-based Bond Dickinson LLP and US-based Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP. The combination followed a strategic alliance announcement made in 2016. [2] The firm has 27 locations across the United States and the United Kingdom [3] offering services in 12 different sectors. [4]

Contents

The combination created Womble Bond Dickinson (International) LLP; a company limited by guarantee in which Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP, operate as separate non-profit-sharing partnerships.

Overview

Womble Bond Dickinson employs approximately 1,000 lawyers located in 27 offices in the UK and US. Womble Bond Dickinson is a member of Lex Mundi, a global organization of independent law firms. [1] [5] [6]

History

UK-based law firm Bond Dickinson LLP commenced trading on May 1, 2013. [7] This alliance was a result of a merger between Dickinson Dees and Bond Pearce. [7] Prior to the merger, Dickinson Dees (whose history dates back to 1975) registered as an LLP in 2006. Bond Pearce (founded in 1887) registered as an LLP in 2005.

Womble Carlyle's history dates back to 1876 and was named after its early partners including B.S. Womble and Irving E. Carlyle. [8]

In January 2016, Womble Carlyle named Betty Temple chairwoman and CEO, and she became one of only a handful of women to sit at the helm of a large national law firm. [9] Temple's appointment represented several milestones for Womble Carlyle. She became the youngest chairperson in the firm's 140-year history, the first chairperson to be located outside of the firm's original Winston-Salem office, and the first woman to lead the firm. [10]

As part of Womble Carlyle Bond Dickinson, Temple is now United States CEO and Co-Chair with UK Managing Partner, Paul Stewart (appointed in February 2022). [11]

Controversy

Stephen Dilley, a partner with Womble Bond Dickinson, has been criticised for his role in the UK Post Office Scandal including by the professional magazine, The Lawyer . Dilley failed to disclose potentially relevant evidence during his conduct of the civil proceedings against Lee Castleton and resulting in a miscarriage of justice. [12] Within a year of owning his sub post office in East Yorkshire, the then subpostmaster noticed glitches in the computer system that eventually showed around £25,000 in discrepancies. He described "begging" the Post Office helpline to explain to him what was going on, but instead the Post Office demanded, with scant evidence, repayment of funds for which they alleged he was "liable". He ended up in a High Court case conducted by Dilley that "sapped" Castleton of all his money. Castleton was made to repay that money plus legal costs of £321,000, which ended up bankrupting him and tearing up his family. [13]

Stephen Dilley later attended the associated public inquiry as a witness as part of the examination of knowledge of and responsibility for failures in disclosure in the conduct of the litigation. [14]

Part of the evidence supplied to the inquiry included an email written by Stephen Dilley in 31 October 2006 showing that he was aware that Horizon could lose transactions, [15] however this too was not disclosed to the court as part of the Castleton civil proceedings.

Dilley was then working for Bond Pearce; "A major new law firm launched on May 1 [2013] with the merger of Bond Pearce and Dickinson Dees to create Bond Dickinson." [16] Four years later, "the partners of UK-based Bond Dickinson LLP and US-based Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP have voted to combine as equal members in a new entity under the name Womble Bond Dickinson." [17]

Dilley denies any wrongdoing. [18] According to The Law Society Gazette, Dilley explained his failure to disclose thousands of issues raised about the Horizon IT system was out of concern he would be 'swamped' by disclosure; it seemed "onerous". [19] However, between 2021 and 15 September 2023 his published case "list of experience" was amended to delete all mention of Post Office v Castleton [2007] EWHC 5(QB). [20] Mr Dilley's view of his own "behaviour and attitude towards the Castleton case" and its impact on the innocent defendant and his family is summarised in an article by Nick Wallis, author of "Great Post Office Scandal" as "Nothing personal, Mr Castleton. It's just justice..." [21]

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The British Post Office scandal, sometimes called the Horizon IT scandal, saw the Post Office persecute and prosecute thousands of innocent subpostmasters for shortfalls in their accounts, which had been caused not by dishonesty but by faults in the Post Office Horizon software, provided by Fujitsu. Between 1999 and 2015, over 900 subpostmasters were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting based on faulty Horizon data, with about 700 of these prosecutions carried out by the Post Office. Other subpostmasters were prosecuted but not convicted, forced to cover Horizon shortfalls with their own money, or had their contracts terminated. The court cases, criminal convictions, imprisonments, loss of livelihoods and homes, debts and bankruptcies, took a heavy toll on the victims and their families, leading to stress, illness, family breakdown, and at least four suicides. The scandal has subsequently been described as one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in British history.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Womble Bond Dickinson". Law.com. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Bond Dickinson announces alliance with US firm Womble Carlyle". The Lawyer. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Locations: Find Your Local Law Firm". Womble Bond Dickinson. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  4. ↑ "Sectors". Womble Bond Dickinson. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  5. ↑ Womble Bond Dickinson UK Locations
  6. ↑ Tribe, Meghan (March 30, 2020). "Womble Bond Dickinson Layoffs, Pay Cuts Follow Challenging Year". Bloomberg Law. Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  7. 1 2 "Bond Pearce and Dickie Dees agree to merge, forming Bond Dickinson". The Lawyer. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  8. ↑ Roundtree, Lynn (2001). The First 125 Years of a Law Firm. Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, PLLC. p. 90. ISBN   0-89587-251-X.
  9. ↑ Spear, Eilene (21 March 2016). "Elizabeth "Betty" Temple of Womble Carlyle: Innovation and Diversity to Serve Clients Better". The National Law Review. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Chair-elect Hopes to Bring Fresh Perspective to Womble Carlyle". North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. April 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Law firm Womble Bond Dickinson announces new UK managing partner". Business Live. 24 June 2021. Retrieved 2022-04-01.
  12. ↑ "First-class effort: how justice was done in the Post Office Scandal". The Lawyer. 2021-06-26. Retrieved 2024-01-07.
  13. ↑ "Post Office scandal: The story behind victims of faulty Horizon accounting software". Sky News. 2024-01-08. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  14. ↑ "Post Office Horizon Inquiry Phase 4 - 21 September 2023" . Retrieved 2024-01-07.
  15. ↑ "POL00069404 - Email from Stephen Dilley to Brian Pinder (Fujitsu) re: Post Office Limited v Lee Castleton" . Retrieved 2024-01-07.
  16. ↑ "Bond Dickinson launches with merger of Bond Pearce and Dickinson Dees". The Business Magazine. 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  17. ↑ "Law firm becomes Womble Bond Dickinson after 'merger'". The Business Magazine. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  18. ↑ "Wombles partner denies acting like a 'Vinnie Jones character' in Post Office case". 2023-09-22. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  19. ↑ "Solicitor for Post Office defends failure to disclose Horizon helpline calls". 2023-09-22. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  20. ↑ Hamilton, Jamie (2023-09-15). "Wombles partner set for grilling over Post Office scandal". Archived from the original on 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  21. ↑ Wallis, Nick (2023-09-21). "Nothing personal, Mr Castleton. It's just justice..." Archived from the original on 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-10.

See also

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