Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice’s newly elected chairwoman, Betty Temple, represents several firsts for the firm. Temple, who works in Atlanta and Greenville, S.C., is the first Womble head from outside its Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters. She is also the firm’s first female leader and, at 50, the youngest in its 140-year history.
Temple will succeed Keith Vaughan on Jan. 1, 2016, after a transitional year. Vaughan, a litigator, has been Womble’s leader for 13 years. He is also the chairman of Lex Mundi, an international association of law firms to which Womble belongs. Temple is the firm’s vice chairwoman and a member of its management and executive committees.
