Pillsbury Opens in Boston With Eye on Health, Banking, Tech

Pillsbury is opening a Boston office with four partners and a senior counsel, including a former Latham & Watkins lawyer, the firm announced Monday.

Robert Gilbert joined from Latham. He represents policyholders in insurance recovery matters, with clients that have included Harvard University, UniFirst Corp., and Northland Investment Corp.

Michael Zeliger, global head of Pillsbury’s intellectual property group, is also part of the new office along with partners Andrew Troop and Don Lonczak, senior counsel David Simons and several associates.

The firm joins a string of Big Law operations that have opened in Boston, lured by client business in sectors including health care, banking, and technology. “Opening a Boston office is a natural next step given our breadth and depth of capabilities,” said David Dekker, Pillsbury’s chair, in a statement.

Reed Smith launched its office in March with 12 lawyers from firms including K&L Gates, White & Case, Goodwin Procter. Haynes Boone opened in January. Freshfields, Crowell & Moring, and Fenwick & West started Boston offices last year.

Pillsbury in February said it brought in more than $939 million in revenue last year, an 18% increase from the previous period and a new record for the firm.

The firm formed in 2001 when San Francisco-founded Pillsbury Madison joined New York’s Winthrop Stimson. It merged with Washington-based Shaw Pittman four years later to create Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw & Pittman.

Gilbert said in the statement that “Pillsbury’s entry into the Boston market is the natural next step for what I consider the country’s strongest policyholder-side trial practice.”