Betty’s 25 years of experience in advising public company boards on their highest strategic priorities gives her perspective on how to meet the needs of clients in a fast-changing world. Clients describe Betty as a champion for their interests—a leader, an innovator, and a trusted strategic counselor.
In her role as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Womble Bond Dickinson in the United States, Betty’s highest leadership priority is to ensure that the firm’s clients receive extraordinary service and legal work from dedicated lawyers. As Co-Chair of the Board of the transatlantic Womble Bond Dickinson, she has expanded the firm’s ability to reach further in serving clients through the additional mind power, bench strength, industry insight, practice areas and geographic coverage that the combined firms can bring to bear.
A practicing Corporate & Securities lawyer, Betty is a two-time winner of BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service All Star Award – one of only a handful of lawyers ever to receive the award on multiple occasions. These awards speak to the trust placed in her by the middlemarket, Fortune 500 and global companies she has helped thrive and grow.
Honors and Awards
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings)
- Corporate Governance Law, 2018 – Present
- Litigation – Mergers and Acquisitions, 2016 – Present
- Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2019 – Present
- Securities / Capital Markets Law, 2008 – Present
- Securities Regulation, 2011 – Present
- Recognized in Greenville Business Magazine’s 50 Most Influential, 2014, 2019, 2022
- Received the Best Lawyers® "Lawyer of the Year" Award in the fields of Securities / Capital Markets Law (Greenville), 2017, 2020; Corporate Governance Law (Greenville), 2022
- Recognized in Greenville Business Magazine’s Legal Elite, International, Banking & Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities, 2021 – Present
- Chambers USA Ranked Lawyer, Corporate/M&A, South Carolina, 2005 – Present
- British Consul General Award, 2019 (recognizing outstanding contributions in support of bilateral trade and investment between the US and the UK throughout the Carolinas)
- Super Lawyers Honoree, South Carolina Super Lawyers magazine (Thomson Reuters), 2016 – 2019
- Triad Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs Award, 2018
- Mecklenburg Times Most Influential Women Award, 2009
- Named a BTI Client Service All-Star, BTI Consulting Group, 2006, 2009
Civic and Professional Activities
- Mentor, Liberty Fellowship's Class of 2019
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- For more than 25 years, represented Fortune 500 companies as well as leading middle market and international companies in mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, tender offers, and compliance and governance matters. Betty works with Boards, executives and entrepreneurs and helps them identify and leverage opportunities for growth in dynamic and changing markets.
- Negotiated and represented Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP in its combination with Bond Dickinson LLP to form Womble Bond Dickinson.
- Spearheaded creation of and led the Public Company Advisors Team, focused on the development of skills, technologies, innovations and best-practices related to the specific needs of publicly traded companies.
- En route to her current leadership roles, chaired a Strategic Task Force, whose findings stressed the need for more numerous and deeper relationships with clients, better aligning the firm’s operations with client needs, and developing a multinational capability to address clients’ increasingly global aspirations.
- Championed the creation of an Innovation Board at Womble Bond Dickinson-US. The board is tasked with identifying and championing technologies, processes, tools and innovations that improve client service and help companies to be even more effective.
