Pillsbury

With 700 attorneys and 20 offices around the world, Pillsbury is truly a global firm. With six of its offices based in the Golden State, however, the firm maintains the laid-back vibes of its West Coast roots.

Giants Combined

Pillsbury dates back to 1868, when Elihu Root opened a New York practice that would later become Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts. Root was known for his positions as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early 1900s.

Meanwhile, in 1874, Evans S. Pillsbury opened a practice on the West Coast. Pillsbury represented a local banking and delivery service called Wells Fargo and a nascent California oil outfit that would eventually become Chevron; these two clients are still represented by the firm today.

In 2001, Pillsbury Madison and Winthrop Stimson joined forces. Four years later, the new firm merged with Washington, DC-based Shaw Pittman, ushering in the era of Pillsbury in its current form.

Changing with the Times

Pillsbury has had a hand in the growth of global commerce and industry through its representation of America’s oldest financial institutions and in drafting of the 1952 Patent Act, establishing the first nuclear energy practice, and forming Intel. Today, the firm’s clients include more than 100 companies in the Fortune 500, as well as startups, mid-caps, investment funds, and nonprofits. Specifically, Pillsbury clients include Facebook, Chevron, Deutsche Bank, the ACLU of Northern California, Lyft, Wells Fargo, San Diego Comic-Con, New York University, Duke Energy, Sony, and The Walt Disney Company.

The firm’s legal work is concentrated primarily in four major industries: technology and media, energy, financial services, and real estate and construction. Moreover, the firm has developed region-specific practices aimed at clients’ needs in China, Japan, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Pillsbury maintains a unique “emerging issues” program, which allows its attorneys to pioneer new and novel areas of the law. Some of the current topics are focused on AI; digital currency and blockchain technology; esports; privacy, data security and information use; public-private partnerships; and water resources.

Public Service

Pro bono work is central to Pillsbury’s culture, with every attorney from the top down required to take on a minimum of 25 hours of pro bono projects per year. Pro bono cases involve asylum claims, civil rights, justice for indigent individuals, and other concerns. In addition, the firm’s Stimson Fellowship allows incoming associates to spend one year at a public service organization.

• Structured unprecedented settlements for Swiss financial institutions with U.S. prosecutors, enabling our clients to avoid potentially billions of dollars in exposure under U.S. tax laws and avoid criminal prosecution.
• Concluding almost a decade of litigation, Pillsbury convinced the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a summary judgment dismissing $1.4 billion in claims of civil and criminal cartel price-fixing against American Media, Inc.
• Representing NTT Data Corp. in its acquisition of Dell Inc.’s IT services division (infrastructure services, cloud services, application services, and business process outsourcing) for $3 billion.
• Advised PHH Corp.’s Board of Directors on its Fleet Division’s $4.9 billion sale to Element Financial Corp., including $1.4 billion in cash and $3.5 billion debt assumption.

• Best Law Firms for Talent, 2025—Seramount
• Honorable Mention for Advancement, 2024—Yale Law Women
• Named Most Innovative Law Firm in North America in the Energy Transition, 2023 and 2024—Financial Times
• Ranked among Top Global Firms; 52 practices and 103 lawyers ranked in the USA, 2024—Chambers
• 193 Pillsbury lawyers ranked as leading practitioners and 55 acknowledged as Ones to Watch, 2025—Best Lawyers