How Womble Bond Dickinson Is Using AI To Elevate the Real Estate Client Experience

With Orbital, Womble Bond Dickinson is helping real estate clients get earlier clarity, faster reporting and more structured insight across complex transactions.

A Transatlantic Real Estate Practice Built For Complexity

Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) is one of the UK’s leading real estate law firms, with more than 230 fee earners across seven UK offices, from Edinburgh to Plymouth, and multiple offices across the United States.

That scale gives the firm a broad client base and deep sector expertise across a wide range of real estate work, from retail portfolio matters and title screening to large-scale transactional due diligence.

Raising the Bar on Client Experience

For WBD, the opportunity was clear: how could the firm continue to bring its real estate expertise to clients in a way that was faster, more structured and easier to scale across a large real estate practice?

Real estate transactions are document-heavy, detail-rich and often time-sensitive. Lawyers need to read, investigate and interpret complex information before turning it into advice clients can use.

But the work does not stop at the legal analysis. A significant amount of time can also go into translating that analysis into a clear, client-ready format.

“When we’re reporting on documents for a client, there’s a period of time spent reading and investigating, thinking about the documents, and then there’s a big slug of time just spent translating, getting that information onto paper.”
— Jon Hobbs, Real Estate Partner at WBD

Across a practice of WBD’s scale, the firm saw an opportunity to make that process more efficient while strengthening the client experience across teams, offices and matters.

“One of the biggest bottlenecks we suffered was actually creating consistency of service, making sure that information was shared equally amongst the whole of the client service team.”
— Nikki Powell, Real Estate Partner at WBD

This was not about replacing legal judgement. It was about giving WBD’s lawyers better ways to turn their expertise into structured insight clients could act on, especially at the moments when speed and clarity matter most.

Why Womble Bond Dickinson Chose Orbital

WBD wanted a technology partner that understood real estate from the inside out. Not a generic tool that had to be adapted to fit property workflows, but a platform built around the specific demands of real estate transactions.

“We wanted to work with a provider that loves real estate as much as we do, that understands our transactions and wants to solve our real estate pain points. Orbital ticked all those boxes for us.”
‍— Katherine Crowley, Legal Director & Practice Development Lead at WBD

That focus was felt quickly by the team.

“The real difference with Orbital is it’s definitely been designed with a real estate focus. We could feel that almost immediately from when we started to use it.”
— Nikki Powell, Real Estate Partner at WBD

Because Orbital was designed for real estate legal work, WBD’s teams could apply AI to the parts of the process where it created meaningful value: structuring information, supporting reporting workflows and helping lawyers produce clearer outputs faster.

The team created custom reporting templates tailored to specific client needs, helping fee earners produce structured outputs that reflected how WBD wanted to deliver its service.

“Orbital has been transformational for my team. It’s enabled us to create real, consistent reporting to our clients at the outset and at the end of transactions.”
‍— Nikki Powell, Real Estate Partner at WBD

Faster Screening, Better Client Service

One area where the impact has been most visible is in early-stage title and lease screening.

When clients are bidding on a property or negotiating heads of terms, they often need a rapid view on whether there are obvious red flags in the title documents or leases. They may not need a full report at that stage, but they do need enough clarity to make confident decisions.

“With Orbital, I can present to clients very rapidly a screening report on the lease documents, the key title documents, which gives them what they need at that early stage.”
‍— Jon Hobbs, Real Estate Partner at WBD

This kind of rapid, structured output, delivered at the point of need rather than weeks into an instruction, is exactly the shift that modern real estate clients are asking for.

The value is especially clear on large, high-pressure matters.

In one example, a WBD fee earner was working on a major project involving hundreds of properties and a very tight deadline. Orbital helped her deliver the work on time, maintain the client relationship and avoid the kind of unsustainable pressure that complex portfolio work can create.

“Recently, I was told by a fee earner that Orbital has changed her life. She was involved in a huge project, hundreds of properties, a very tight deadline. Orbital enabled her to deliver on time, keep the client happy, and she was able to go home on time.”
— Katherine Crowley, Legal Director & Practice Development Lead at WBD

That story captures the impact in human terms. The client gets what they need, when they need it. The lawyer can deliver at a high standard without unnecessary strain. And the firm can support complex work in a more scalable way.

A Partnership Shaped Around Real Estate Workflows

A key part of the relationship has been collaboration. WBD has not simply adopted Orbital. The firm has worked closely with the Orbital team to shape how the product develops.

“All our suggestions have been received really enthusiastically. And I think that’s because Orbital understands that by working with their clients together, we will create a better product.”
— Katherine Crowley, Legal Director & Practice Development Lead at WBD

That feedback loop matters because real estate legal work is specific. The workflows, documents, risks and reporting expectations are not generic. By working closely with firms like WBD, Orbital can continue to build technology that reflects how leading real estate teams actually operate.

Looking Ahead

The firm's ambitions for Orbital extend well beyond a single team or use case. As adoption grows across offices and practice areas, Womble Bond Dickinson sees Orbital becoming part of the fabric of how it delivers real estate legal services.

"In the very near future, Orbital will touch most of our transactions."
‍— Katherine Crowley, Legal Director & Practice Development Lead at WBD

AI is not about automation for its own sake. It is about elevating the client experience: giving clients earlier clarity, helping them act faster and making the firm’s real estate expertise easier to access across more transactions.

As real estate work becomes more complex and clients continue to expect faster, clearer insight, WBD is showing what it looks like for a leading law firm to use AI with purpose.