Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP

Headquarters	Winston-Salem, North Carolina
No. of offices	14
No. of attorneys	approximately 530^[1]
No. of employees	1,100+
Key people	Keith W. Vaughan, Chairman; Terry Wiley, Executive director^[2]
Date founded	1876
Company type	Professional Liability Partnership
Website
www.wcsr.com

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP, established in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1876, is one of the largest business law firms in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the United States. Currently, Womble Carlyle has 14 offices: Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh, North Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston South Carolina; Tysons Corner, Virginia; Washington, DC; Wilmington, Delaware; and Silicon Valley, California. The firm’s growth has matched the economic growth and evolution of North Carolina and the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.

As of 2003, the firm was the largest in North Carolina.^[3]

History

The firm traces its history to 1876, when Cyrus Watson and W.B. Glenn formed a partnership in Winston, North Carolina, under the name Watson & Glenn.^[4]

In 1885, the firm name changed to Glenn & Glenn
In 1891, the firm name changed to Glenn & Manley
In 1898, the firm name changed to Glenn, Manley & Hendren
In 1905, the firm name changed to Manly & Hendren
In 1911, the firm name changed to Manly, Hendren & Womble
In 1942, the firm name changed to Womble, Carlyle, Martin & Sandridge
In 1954, the firm name changed to Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice

Irving E. Carlyle was a long-time resident of Winston-Salem, N.C. He was a trustee of Wake Forest University and coached the men's basketball team in its earliest years. Carlyle is one of the most notable civil rights attorneys in North Carolina history. Womble Carlyle was able to grow into one of the most successful law firms in North Carolina due to its proximity in Winston-Salem to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which used Womble Carlyle for its legal services.^[3]

Womble Carlyle began expanding outside Winston-Salem in the 1980s by establishing an office in Raleigh in 1982 and adding an office in Charlotte in 1984.^[4]^[5] The 1990s were marked by the firm’s early commitment to technology and further expansion into new cities by opening new offices and also merging with other law firms. By the end of the 1990s, Womble Carlyle had opened its Atlanta, Research Triangle Park, Washington D.C. and Greenville, South Carolina offices. The firm’s commitment to technology was recognized in 1999 when Red Herring (a weekly magazine focused on the business of funding, building, and taking new technologies to market), recognized Womble Carlyle as one of the most progressive law firms in the country due to its commitment to technology.

Current Size of Firm/Recent Changes

Womble Carlyle now has more than 550 lawyers and 1200 staff located in fourteen offices. ^[6] Its attorneys and professionals provide a full range of legal services to regional, national and international businesses and other clients in a wide range of industries.

Womble Carlyle is a member of Lex Mundi, a global organization of independent law firms.

In Fall 2011, Womble Carlyle opened an office in Cupertino, California in the Silicon Valley and then moved the office to Palo Alto in 2015, further demonstrating the firm's long-standing commitment to serving intellectual property, high-tech and patent clients.

Effective April 30, 2011, Womble Carlyle merged with Buist Moore Smythe McGee, P.A., a 44-lawyer Charleston, South Carolina law firm, creating the largest law firm in both North and South Carolina. Buist Moore Smythe McGee P.A. lawyers are known for their advocacy on behalf of corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other business associations in all aspects of commercial activity.

In February 2012, the Firm merged with Hall and Bowers, LLC and established the firm's office in Columbia, SC.

Honors and awards

2003 recipient of Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund's Corporate Leadership Award in recognition of the firm's commitment to the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, its 45 member institutions and the students educated at those schools.^[5]

Womble Carlyle is included in the AmLaw 100 Survey and is ranked by The American Lawyer as being among the 100 leading firms in the United States and was ranked number 67 in the 2005 survey.^[7]

Representative clients

Womble Carlyle represents many nationally and internationally known corporations, businesses and foundations in industries that include manufacturing, transportation and energy, financial services, insurance, health care, education and technology including:^[8]

Armstrong World Industries
Bank of America
Bayer CropScience
BB&T
Childress Klein Properties
Collins & Aikman Floorcoverings, Inc.
DaimlerChrysler
Dell Inc.
GlaxoSmithKline
Jefferson-Pilot
Lowe's
Novartis
Symantec Corporation
Thomas Built Buses, Inc.
Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc.
UNC Hospitals
Wachovia Bank
Wake Forest University

Womble Carlyle also has an active pro bono practice which has included high-profile cases such as the defense of death-row inmate Alan Gell by Womble Carlyle lawyer James P. Cooney, III.

References