Bond Dickinson managing partner Jonathan Blair talks to Legal Week about what makes the firm a Best Legal Adviser for 2016-17

How do you deliver true value and how do you benchmark the value given? When I'm the client I need to feel happy with the quality and timeliness of the service delivery, how it looks and feels and that I've come away with answers rather than more problems. We want to deliver exceptionally high quality advice that clients understand; that Nirvana of timely service and lawyers that answer questions and don't just present an academic thesis. Then clients come away thinking to themselves – that was worthwhile. Then our clients say: just send me the bill and I'll pay it by return. That's when you know you've delivered value.

How do you differentiate your offering in an increasingly crowded and competitive market? Quality is a given, you've got to make sure you're always delivering that high quality because if you don't there's someone next door who will.

Timeliness of delivery of service is critically important. If you get an email from a client, you reply within an hour – you don't want another email saying: did you not get my email? So proactive, high quality, solution-based advice from good people is what keeps you front of mind and keeps clients close.

What innovation(s) have you introduced in the last year that has/have added most value to clients? Without doubt, the Womble Carlye Sandridge & Rice US alliance. We're developing an international strategy, having moved from regional to national and now international. It's a very big, important step that's repositioned us in the minds of our clients, who now see us from a different perspective. It's an exclusive strategic alliance, which means that from a client viewpoint, everything from the UK that goes into the US goes into Womble Carlyle and vice versa. The alliance is underpinned by referral work but it is much more than that. We are presenting to targeted sectors and clients as a co-branded business, doing co-branded events. We're approaching targeted clients on a joint basis, collaborating around things like innovation.

What clients like about the firm • Good understanding of business and high quality legal advice, no weakness • Level of expertise, variety of areas they cover • Value for money, pragmatic/practical legal advice

Bond Dickinson's top scores 1. Communication and responsiveness 2. Quality of service delivery 3. Overall relationship with firm

For more information visit: www.bonddickinson.com

The Best Legal Advisers Report will be published in December. For more information email [email protected] or call her on +44 (0) 203 868 7545.