Highlights Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Every day at Pillsbury, we work on ground-breaking matters for some of the world’s most innovative companies. Every day, we confront some of the most meaningful legal challenges of our time. Every day, we take on pro bono cases that change lives and frame important social issues.

This is a place where initiative is valued and rewarded, where self-starters become team players, and where continual growth—both professional and personal—underscores every successful career.

At the Office

At Pillsbury, we work hard—as hard as any group of lawyers, anywhere. But “group” is the operative word. In any Pillsbury office, it is collaboration that defines our work lives.

While each of our offices has its own personality, core values and basic procedures are shared firmwide. The aim is to assure that lawyers from different practice areas—and from all levels—can pool their efforts in the service of our clients.

Flexibility

Our people work really hard, but that doesn’t exempt us from the rest of life’s challenges and stresses. We do our best to accommodate both the short-term circumstances and the long-term needs of our people and their families. It is in the firm’s interest that personal and professional lives be kept in good balance.

We support a wide range of possible work arrangements, designed to ensure that productivity at work is a complement—not a conflict—to satisfaction at home.

If that means a flextime arrangement or some other non-traditional schedule, so be it. If it means a temporary or short-term flextime arrangement to handle a class, care for a family member, or a community interest program, we do our best to accommodate your needs.

Support Systems

Recognizing that the work/life balance equation can play such a crucial role in effective lawyering, Pillsbury regularly sponsors workshops on health and well-being issues. Past events have covered meditation, stress reduction, personal organizing, and a variety of family issues.

The firm also supports a number of programs designed to ease some of the stresses that can arise when work needs and personal responsibilities conflict, including:

• New baby care leave for fathers and mothers
• Private on-site nursing rooms
• Backup childcare
• Summer family events

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity is more than a social responsibility. At Pillsbury, we consider it vital, not just to our values, but to our strategic goals as well.

We actively seek out and develop talent from the widest possible range of backgrounds and perspectives. We have long been convinced that this serves to broaden our horizons, stimulate our creativity, and contribute directly to our success. Diverse minds are essential to working in a global economy as well as anticipating and meeting the needs of our clients.

Some recent accomplishments include:

• Firm Chair Jim Rishwain honored with a CEO Diversity Leadership Award by Diversity Best Practices  
• Making Working Mother magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies for the past seven years
• Perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the past seven years
• Included in the Yale Law Women 2011 “Top 10 Family Firm” list
• Named by the National Association of Female Executives as a Top 50 Company
• One of 15 companies listed in Work Life Matters magazine’s Top Companies for LGBT Equality  
• Recipient of 2011 Gold Certification by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum

The Diversity Committee

Recognizing that diversity is a long-term imperative, our Diversity Committee has long been central to our efforts and initiatives. The committee has close ties to a number of organizations in the community—as well as to law schools, bar associations, minority organizations—and to other groups whose goals we share.

We are sponsors of numerous diversity-related groups, and we closely align our initiatives with our recruiting efforts.

Affinity Groups

We recognize that lawyers join us with diverse experiences and perspectives, and we seek to support their experience at the firm through programs such as our affinity groups. These groups—Asian-American, African-American, Latino, Women, and LGBT—focus both on building community and on professional development.

The firm facilitates retreats, discussion groups, book clubs, and other career-building activities in support of our affinity groups. We also partner with clients who share our commitment to recruiting, retention, and development of a diverse workforce.

Sustainability

Pillsbury’s commitment to sustainability often involves creative thinking on the part of all members of our community who believe in what they’re doing.

We started years ago, with groundbreaking recycling programs for everything from carpet to printer cartridges. Then came the firmwide initiatives that reduced paper, cut energy consumption, and streamlined business travel.

Our commuter resources program has been recognized by the Washington Business Journal and the San Diego Association of Governments, for its contribution to the reduction of traffic congestion and improved mobility in the region. Among our commuter encouragement efforts:

• We provide pre-tax deductions for public transportation commuters
• We offer free membership with Zipcar, a car-sharing service, and RideSpring, to encourage carpooling
• Our New York City car service includes a fleet consisting entirely of gas-electric hybrids

Other sustainability programs include our comprehensive recycling program and our ongoing purchase of renewable energy credits. We have also invested in motion-sensor lights, improved energy-efficient bulbs, and other green technologies, resulting in dramatic cost savings.

Pro Bono/Social Impact

We are a firm composed of numerous people performing innumerable works of service in our communities and in the legal system.

Much of the work centers on providing basic legal services to the poor. We counsel nonprofit organizations on a variety of matters—formation, mergers, intellectual property, real estate, and tax. We also take on high-impact litigation for worthy causes.

Every lawyer is expected to perform a minimum of 25 hours annually in service to the firm’s pro bono clients, with associates receiving billable-hours credit for all approved pro bono hours without a ceiling.  

Other special opportunities for associates:

• We offer the Stimson Fellowship which Pillsbury awards to one member of the entering class of first-year associates. The recipient of the Stimson Fellowship is seconded to a pro bono service provider for a year, with the firm paying an $85,000 annual salary and benefits.  After the conclusion of the year, the recipient joins the firm as an associate. 
• Introduced in 2012, one highly regarded mid-level associate is selected as our mid-level associate pro bono fellow annually.  A competitive process is used to choose the pro bono fellow, who devotes 50 percent of her or his time working on a visible, high-impact pro bono matter.  The chosen associate will receive her or his regular salary and have the same opportunity for bonuses and advancement as other associates.

From summer associates to senior partners, we bring passion and belief to our pro bono matters—and both the firm and individual lawyers regularly receive community recognition for these efforts.