Bond Dickinson is named as Top 5 Firm for Innovation

National law firm Bond Dickinson LLP, which has a large office in Plymouth, has ranked in the Top 5 firms for innovation in the Best Legal Adviser Report for 2016-2017. The report scored law firms across fifteen categories including innovation, quality of legal advice, communication skills and commercial approach based on feedback from clients and in-house legal counsel.

Nigel Emmerson, Head of Innovation at Bond Dickinson comments: "The legal sector needs to embrace innovation in order to remain competitive, relevant and progressive. Our Innovation Group has been established to help identify potential innovation opportunities and coordinate initiatives and projects across the firm. We're delighted to be recognised for our innovation – but we need to keep challenging ourselves to think differently about how we deliver our service to clients.

"We have also seen really positive results from projects where we have collaborated with clients such as AIG where document automation has brought big benefits to the in-house legal team. We are also learning from collaboration on innovation with our US partner, Womble Carlyle, which is hugely beneficial to both firms."

Innovation in law firms has clearly become much more important to clients – in 2015 only 28% of those surveyed for the Best Legal Adviser Report said it was important whereas in 2016 this rose to 62%. However satisfaction with the innovation being delivered by law firms remains low compared to other areas such as billing practice or quality of service delivery. Bond Dickinson was ranked in the Top 5 for both Overall Innovation and Alternative Low Cost Centres.

Legal Week received responses from clients from over 250 law firms for the Best Legal Adviser Report. Bond Dickinson received its highest scores in communication and responsiveness; quality of service delivered; and the overall relationship the firm has with its clients – as well as ranking highly against its competitors for innovation.

Based in seven UK cities, Bond Dickinson provides legal services across a range of sectors including energy, financial institutions, insurance, retail, transport, manufacturing, real estate, and private wealth.