From the US to the UK: Inside Womble Bond Dickinson’s Attorney Exchange Program

WBD-US and WBD-UK are committed to immersing themselves in the additional capability that the combination provides, and they have been working through the opportunities that this proposition brings. The US‐UK Office Exchange program seeks to provide a training opportunity to enhance the firm’s focus in growth practice areas, build the skillsets of current attorneys, create cross‐ border peer groups, increase the firm’s ability to support global clients, and promote employee retention. 

Transcript

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HOST

Welcome to another episode of Womble Perspectives. Today, we're talking with Brendan O'Dea and Amanda Bean to talk about the Womble Bond Dickinson US and UK attorney exchange program.

Amanda is heavily involved in coordinating this new exchange program for our attorneys, and Brendan just returned from spending almost two months in our UK offices. He is the first WBD-US employee to participate, and he was able to attend a range of events, meetings and client interactions while abroad.

Amanda, let's start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about how this idea to do an exchange came about, and what the firm hopes to achieve with it?

AMANDA BEAN
So this has been something that the firm has been thinking about for quite some time. Ever since Womble Bond Dickinson US combined with Womble Bond Dickinson UK, we've always been looking for opportunities to increase collaboration, increase networking, give our attorneys and our staff the chance to work with one another and build those really strong cross border relationships.

And this is one of the many byproducts of that combination. We were really excited to give our team a chance to spend dedicated time in international offices, really learn from their counterparts abroad, become immersed in that team, build those strong partnerships and relationships so that when they return from the exchange, they have the ability to cross sell, have the ability to let our clients know about the great things that we're doing both sides of the pond.

So we're really excited to roll out this program and give our team members the chance to participate.

HOST
Great. Well, what do participating attorneys get to do, and how does it compare with Womble's Transatlantic Lawyer Network, which is another of our programs that gives our attorneys opportunities for cross border exchanges?

AMANDA BEAN
Yes. So this is a more immersive, more in depth experience than our Transatlantic Lawyer Network or TLN program. The TLN program has historically been around a week or so of time and it gives our attorneys a chance to come together with around three to five of their counterparts in their own offices and then with, um, their counterparts abroad.

Usually focus on a particular sector or practice group for really in depth learning, training and typically some sort of group presentation or group project. With this exchange program, you are instead being immersed in local offices for around 59 days or less and given the opportunity to really be involved in the day to day of the teams in which you would work with internationally. For example, you could be sitting in on client calls, you could be sitting in on team meetings and contributing based on the things that you're seeing from your home office and potential opportunities to work together.

You could be going to outings in the international country and really getting immersed in the culture. You can be grabbing coffee with team members who you may have never met before and building new relationships. So we really want the people participating in this program to get the chance to be more immersed than they would through the TLN program, build those stronger relationships, go through more in depth training opportunities specific to their practice group and the clients that they work with.

So there's a much higher level of personalization through this program.

HOST
And I understand that we've already had some UK attorneys come to our US offices. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what they got to do?

AMANDA BEAN
Yes, we were very excited to have two participants from Womble Bond Dickinson UK come to the us. Um, the first was Amy Galloway. She was able to spend time in three of our offices in the us. Um, she's a member of our Internet or intellectual property IP Practice group.

So she was able to build a lot of great connections with the US Side of the IP Practice group. Um, she was able to meet with a lot of team members, attend some client meetings, and attend some conferences here in the US the, um, second participant was Sheila Mackey.

Um, she is also, um, working closely with our IP Practice group. And she was given, um, one of our, um, one of our Womble Bond Dickinson US employees is actually a dual citizen. And she was actually paired with Sheila to be her mentor. And so she was able to give her kind of an additional layer of support and training to help her with the work that she does in the UK to, um, really understand the collaboration and the work that she can do, um, from that unique perspective.

So, um, they had a really great time getting the chance to be immersed in Womble Bond Dickinson US culture. They, um, were able to attend some training programs as well. For, um, example, Sheila was able to attend our annual mock trial event, um, that our professional development team here in the US runs each year.

So she was able to see what things look like from the US Perspective when you go to court. And that was a really great learning opportunity for her. So we always look for chances to provide those unique experiences through programs like these.

HOST
Okay, great. That sounds wonderful, and we have one more question for you. There are already some big plans being made for future exchanges, even as far ahead as 2026. Tell us a little bit about what's on tap for next year?

AMANDA BEAN
Yes. So we're really excited to have had Brendan come back from his exchange just a few weeks ago. Um, and we have our second participant here in the US Going abroad in another couple of weeks. Um, so a lot of exciting things happening on kind of our side of the pond, getting a lot of great learnings and input from Brendan and his experience. So we continue make sure that we improve the program moving forward, make it an even better experience for anyone participating from either the US or the UK. Excited for Dylan to go abroad as well and really get involved in our financial services sector and, um, learn from his UK counterparts.

As we think ahead, we look forward to continuing to offer this program, um, to our attorneys. Again, we've gotten a lot of great learnings from those who have already participated in the program, and we'll keep improving upon the program to make sure that it's something that's valuable for the people participating, but also the offices who are hosting, the mentors who are involved in the program, the leads who are dedicating their time and energy to getting the participants involved in various events, client meetings, training sessions.

So we are really committed to ensuring that this is a positive experience for everyone participating. And we look forward to using this as a way to tell candidates about how we care about our attorneys and how we prioritize their professional development as well as our clients to demonstrate how we are keeping a global perspective and we're learning from one another to provide them with the best experience.

HOST
Thank you so much. And now, let's turn to you, Brendan. For starters, can you tell us a little bit about you and your practice? What do you do for our clients?

BRENDAN O'DEA
Sure. Um, I'm in the patent group, uh, here at Womble on the US side. Uh, I'm mostly on what's called the patent prosecution side. Um, so I draft the patent applications and I engage in the agency practice before the U.S. patent Office, uh, to obtain the patents. Um, occasionally I brush, um, with the litigation side, um, and things like licensing and um, clearances of new products coming to market, that sort of thing.

 Um, but I deal with, um, helping clients secure patent protection, um, at the gate, at the front gate.

HOST
So, how did this opportunity come about for you? And what made you interested in doing it?

BRENDAN O'DEA
You know, several reasons led me, um, to the exchange program. Um, you know, I had uh, you know, the pleasure of being part of the first, uh, Transatlantic Lawyer Network, uh, cohort back in 2018, um, right after, uh, you know, when the combination, uh, between the US and the UK firms was fresh.

Um, that was an amazing experience for me as a more junior attorney. Um, I made some, uh, friends that I have, um, to this day that I still see regularly that I even got to reconnect with overseas. But it's always, uh, that really piqued my interest, uh, in our UK operations.

Um, so when the firm's, um, announcement that we were going to be having the exchange program came, um, out, um, I was very interested to apply, submitted, um, my application and um, actually with the Team TLN program back in 2018, like all of the groups, all of the TLN groups, uh, we were tasked with coming up with a few proposals.

Um, one of our proposals was a secondment type program, um, that ultimately looked, I think, fairly similarly to what the exchange program is. Um, and the chance to kind of take a full circle path towards, um, having some input into that type of program and then actually participating in it later was really appealing to me.

HOST
And what happened once you got over there? Can you walk us through your experience? Where you got to go and what you got to do once you were over there?

BRENDAN O'DEA
The entire experience from front to end was incredible. Um, I landed in London over a weekend and got my bearings and found out where to get food and uh, supplies and things like that. But uh, the first Monday morning I came in, um, and everybody was incredibly welcoming, um, setting me up with IT and who was who, where everything was, local restaurant recommendations, that sort of thing.

And you know, over the next few days, um, it started to feel a little more normal. Like, this is okay, I'm not just visiting here. This is where I'm going to be spending some time. Um, and as I, uh, got you know, further into the uh, you know, operations of the London office where I had spent a lot of the time, um, you know, I started to get invitations to things like, um, client calls or discussions of upcoming client events or, um, outreach events, uh, that the firm was doing.

I was constantly given, uh, contact within the firm. Oh, you should talk to so and so. Um, and I did. And, um, I think one of the benefits of the exchange program, um, is that, like Amanda said, things start to happen, um, over a longer term experience. Um, like I said, TLN was incredible but intensive.

And, um, things start to happen, I think, in weeks two and three, um, that don't necessarily have a chance to happen, uh, in one week. Um, and I got to observe those things kind of unfurl, um, as the program progressed, um, I did about three weeks in. 

I visited, uh, our Newcastle office - they were hosting one of their team days, which is kind of equivalent to a practice group retreat, uh, on the US Side. Um, that was an incredible experience. I got to meet so many people there, um, and make some connections that sparked further conversations within the firm. Um, I spent a week in Leeds as well, uh, where the IP team is seated over there.

The, uh, intellectual property team got, um, a chance to collaborate with them, uh, sit in on some of their kind of weekly meetings and see how they run things and have the benefit of that experience. Um, so it was a very varied experience. I got to go to some client events.

I went to a soccer match or a football match, as I would say over there. Um, but over the course of the entire program, I really started to feel, uh, as they say, part of the furniture. Um, and it was incredible.

HOST
That sounds like an amazing experience. How have your clients responded to this? And how do you think this will help you help clients moving forward?

BRENDAN O'DEA

Clients responded really well. Um, you know, sometimes, uh, as I was, you know, continuing, um, to a capacity, my workload of my U.S. clients, um, sometimes it would come up organically, like, oh, by the way, I'm in a different time zone, that sort of thing. Um, other times I'd be on a video call and someone would notice that the sun was gone behind me, and they would ask, where are you?

And it came up, uh, quite often, uh, that I was in the UK and clients really responded well. First that we have this international presence. They seem to be really, um, kind of, uh, interested that the firm has, um, a program of this caliber that they, uh, not only that we have this program and have this presence, but they're actively sending attorneys, uh, to exchange and to have the benefit of, you know, learning the culture and operations on the other side of the pond.

Um, you know, and a lot of conversations came up. Uh, oh, yeah, we occasionally do work, you know, in the UK here, um, here and there. So it was. It was a Great, you know, conversation, um, starter, um, and clients responded really well to it.

HOST
And just from a big picture perspective, what did you think of the UK's IP legal system as it compares to the US? Did you find a lot of similarities? Now that you've been immersed in it, how do these two different systems compare in your mind?

BRENDAN O'DEA
They are very similar, um, at a high level, I would say the differences are in the smaller details. Um, patent law by its nature is very internationally harmonized. There's been a lot of work, uh, over the past several decades to form a lot of, uh, treaties, uh, and agreements that allow, uh, patent applicants to seek protection in one country and sort of streamline or fast track that protection to other countries.

Um, and, um, a lot of the major governments in the world have worked to have sort of counterpart provisions for certain things. So it is very easy, um, to move about internationally from a patent perspective. Um, but having a familiarity with it and hearing about it and coordinating with European, uh, council, um, here and there, um, is different from actually seeing it and sitting in on the IP teams meetings.

They did some rundown of some recent cases, um, some of their recent successes, and actually hearing and looking at some of their court decisions. You know, I was, you know, familiar with the high, you know, the high notes of, um, UK patent law, European patent law, um, but actually reading cases and things like that was a level I never really had occasion to go down to.

And actually seeing and seeing their case rundowns and things like that was very interesting to me.

HOST
Great, that sounds great. Well, that does it for today's episode. Thanks so much to you both, Amanda and Brendan, for taking time with us today.

AMANDA BEAN
Yeah, this is great.

BRENDAN O'DEA
Oh, thanks for hosting it. Really, really appreciate it.

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