How Pillsbury Law uses PitchBook to expand its business

 

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is renowned as a global leader in the legal services industry. The international law firm focuses on the technology & media, energy & natural resources, financial services, real estate & construction, and travel, leisure & hospitality sectors. Recognized by legal research firm BTI Consulting as one of the top 20 firms for client service, Pillsbury and its lawyers are highly regarded for their forward-thinking approach, their enthusiasm for collaborating across disciplines and their unsurpassed commercial awareness.
 

 

Researching current and potential clients

The firm’s attorneys are highly regarded for their ability to handle the most complex and sophisticated transactions. But to do so, they require insightful data that helps them quickly get up to speed on trends and activity in often highly-specialized sectors. PitchBook is often among the first resources they turn to.

“It’s all about specificity now. Attorneys’ requests are getting increasingly more sophisticated—and PitchBook helps us handle them,” says director of business development, Jessica Slater. “We can get detailed information on the individual companies involved in a deal, like what series they’ve done, and get a much clearer picture of what is going on in the sector more broadly.” 

Because Jessica and her colleague Lynne Kilgore, who manages competitive intelligence at Pillsbury, can create bespoke reports so quickly and easily with PitchBook, attorneys at the firm have increasingly come to rely on the insight PitchBook’s data affords. 

“I’m starting to get more and more requests like, ‘Can you go into PitchBook and find X, Y and Z?’ Or, ‘Can you pull PitchBook information on this company I’m about to meet with? Is it venture backed? What industry is it in? Who is investing?’” says Jessica.

"You know why I love you guys? Your data is fantastic. But your customer service is also unmatched. If I have a question, I always get a response within an hour from Matt, my dedicated rep, or from someone else in customer success. I’m being pulled in 50 different directions during the day. Sometimes It is hard to dedicate time to cleansing and normalizing all the data I need. To have an expert on-call who can sit down with me and say ‘look, this is what you need to do, and this is what you can expect to see,’ I greatly appreciate that."

– Lynne Kilgore

Building targeted prospecting lists

This level of detail combined with PitchBook’s intuitive search functionality has helped Lynne support Jessica in building targeted prospecting lists. By quickly and efficiently identifying high-quality targets, she can determine exactly who to reach out to first. 

“With PitchBook’s search feature, we can set parameters to dial into assets under management, preferred minimum and maximum investment size and more. And then the ability to automatically visualize that data in charts makes it easy for us to figure out exactly what the best point of entry is,” says Lynne. 

This is especially useful when Lynne or Jessica need information on early-stage companies or firms, an area where data from other providers is often far less comprehensive. 

“PitchBook is the first place I go for anything related to emerging spaces, growth areas and new companies. It’s very rare that I don’t find the information I need. But if it’s not there, then I know it’s probably not in our other resources,” says Lynne.

Leveraging PitchBook’s reports

In addition to using the platform to identify potential  targets, Pillsbury also employs PitchBook’s reports to get an accurate, high-level overview of the financial landscape for clients and prospects. 

“I always use PitchBook’s reports, especially the middle market and global private equity rankings and analysis, which we frequently reference in executive-level presentations,” says Jessica. 

“The reports always go over really well. The data is presented in a way that is immediately accessible, even if you’re not intimately familiar with the company and its exact place within an industry,” adds Lynne. 

PitchBook’s reports also help promote and reinforce the firm’s status as a global leader when it comes to deal making. As a result of PitchBook’s extensive deal tracking efforts, Pillsbury can point to its repeated rankings as one of the most active firms for venture and M&A transactions globally—exposure that helps the firm stand out in a crowded field. 

“The league tables have generated a lot of positive buzz for us, particularly on the M&A side where consistently high rankings have sparked new client interest. And internally, the attorneys’ desire to maintain that standing has served as a great motivator when it comes to sharing recent deal activity within the team,” Jessica explains.

Unparalleled data meets unmatched customer service

For Lynne and Jessica, industry-leading data is just one part of the equation. The other is top-notch customer service that ensures they can access it quickly and easily. 

“You know why I love you guys? Your data is fantastic. But your customer service is also unmatched. If I have a question, I always get a response within an hour from Matt, my dedicated rep, or from someone else in customer success,” says Lynne. “I’m being pulled in 50 different directions during the day. Sometimes It is hard to dedicate time to cleansing and normalizing all the data I need. To have an expert on-call who can sit down with me and say ‘look, this is what you need to do, and this is what you can expect to see,’ I greatly appreciate that.”

So what can Pillsbury Law expect? Even more—and even happier—clients. Whether Lynne and Jessica are conducting client research, building targeted prospecting lists or leveraging business intelligence reports, they rely on PitchBook to meet the needs of the attorneys they serve. With greater insight into the particular businesses and industries of their clients, these attorneys can, in turn, provide stronger, more informed expertise as they advise on VC, PE and M&A transactions. 

No wonder Pillsbury has found itself near the top of PitchBook’s league tables. Armed with better data, the firm has entered a league of its own.

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