Transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has opened a new office in Houston to expand its offering in the global energy, advanced manufacturing, technology and life sciences sectors.  Central to the firm’s growth strategy, the Houston office will initially launch with four new partners.  These partners will support clients with transactional, intellectual property and litigation needs.

Jeffrey S. Whittle will serve as Houston’s Office Managing Partner.  He joins the firm from Hogan Lovells with a focus on global, complex intellectual property transactions.  Joshua Davis recently joined the firm from Reed Smith and handles a variety of IP litigation matters involving multiple technologies, including life science patent disputes.

Paul B. Turner joins the firm from Reed Smith as a corporate and securities lawyer serving clients in the energy sector with a focus on commodities trading. Elizabeth LeVan Riley, a veteran Womble Bond Dickinson partner who focuses on education and school law, will co-locate her practice between Houston and Raleigh, NC.

More lawyers and professionals are expected to join the Houston team in the near future to further build the firm’s offering in these and other key sectors. Many of the firm’s top 500 clients have operations in the greater Houston area making it a logical choice for the firm’s newest US office, following new locations for WBD in Boston, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County in 2018.

Jonathan Blair, Co-Chair and UK Managing Partner of Womble Bond Dickinson UK added, “WBD is located in many key areas for our clients throughout the US and the UK and we are always looking to build our presence where we can offer strategic support.  Houston has long been on our radar due to its rapid growth and its importance to innovation in a wide variety of STEM fields, especially in energy.”

Head of WBD’s UK energy sector team, Paul Stockley commented: “WBD is among the leading law firms working in the energy sector in the UK from strategic locations including London and Aberdeen. Now with the addition of this office in Houston and our US energy lawyers, we are even better positioned to help and advise clients in all aspects of the energy market across the Atlantic and globally.”

WBD has been immersed in the energy industry sector for decades, giving the firm a great depth of experience across the various different forms of energy and power. WBD’s energy team  covers the full spectrum of upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas, the construction and service sector, and all types of electricity generation projects, including renewables.