Financial Times names Pillsbury one of North America's most innovative law firms

Pillsbury was named one of the 10 most innovative law firms in North America at the Financial Times’ 2015 North America Innovative Lawyers awards dinner, held December 7 in New York. In addition to the top 10 ranking, the firm was also shortlisted in four distinct awards categories for its groundbreaking work. No law firm received recognition in more categories than Pillsbury.

The Financial Times recognized the firm’s pioneering work in:

Innovation in Legal Expertise: Enabling Clients' Business: for creating an innovative restructuring and recapitalizing solution for privately held Berger Group Holdings, among the world’s largest engineering services firms, that satisfied Berger’s need to realize operating efficiencies across a global platform, for access to debt and equity capital, and the outside investor’s need to have basic protections.

Innovation in Legal Expertise: Protecting Clients' Business: Pillsbury’s Global Security Services practice guided client FireEye Inc. through obtaining Department of Homeland Security (DHS) certification for its Multi-Vector Virtual Execution engine and Dynamic Threat Intelligence cloud platform, making them the first purely cybersecurity products to achieve a SAFETY Act “Certification” and marking a milestone in the law’s interpretation.

Innovation in the Business of Law: Forward Thinking: Counseling clients like movie studios, major universities and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) manufacturers long before it was cool to do so. So when the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced plans to issue exemptions for commercial UAS and proposed a rulemaking for commercial UAS, Pillsbury announced the formation of what is now the oldest UAS focus team among major law firms.

Innovation in the Business of Law: Forward Thinking: Pillsbury’s Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology team is a multidisciplinary group of authorities on the set of laws applying to digital currency and other blockchain technologies. Pillsbury was the very tip of the spear in this industry, building a practice where none existed before. Pillsbury now leads the market in advising both fintech startups and institutional clients like banks and money services businesses making new and exciting uses of blockchain technology.

This year, the report’s rigorous submission and referral process included nearly 300 submissions from over 60 law firms, with entries scored based on their originality, rationale and impact. To read it in full, click here.

In celebrating this recognition, Pillsbury Chair Jim Rishwain noted: “In today’s market, clients demand more than just good legal counsel. They need open-minded business advisors who can take a broad view of their operations and offer inventive solutions that help achieve their objectives. We are incredibly proud to be recognized as one of the Financial Times’ 10 most innovative law firms, as it reflects both our long history of ground-breaking transactions and precedent–setting trial results, and our unwavering commitment to achieving our clients’ goals.”