PINSENT MASONS

THE CHALLENGE

Multinational professional services business Pinsent Masons has roots in the UK which trace back to 1769, yet they’re still recognised as one of the most forward-looking and innovative organisations in the sector. They have been named among the top ten Most Innovative Law Firms in Europe by the Financial Times for the past three years. 

As part of their ongoing journey to transform from an expertise-based law firm into an international professional services business with law at its core, they needed to consolidate and re-platform their largest global websites: Pinsentmasons.com and Out-Law.com. 

Last re-platformed in 2011, the sites had become inflexible and costly to upgrade. Strategically, they weren’t driving sufficient brand enhancement or customer acquisition. 

Pinsent Masons appointed Rufus Leonard as their experienced Sitecore delivery partner to undertake the platform build and help them meet their strategic aims.

OUR SOLUTION

Architected on a high-performing Azure PaaS solution design, Rufus Leonard consolidated and re-platformed the two global sites into a central Sitecore platform. Facilitating the transition of the highly engaging Out-Law content to sit under the Pinsent Masons brand was geared toward accelerating new customer acquisition and building loyalty with Pinsent Mason’s clients.

Content was king for the new site, with over 30,000 articles to navigate in multiple languages. So the new site features complex dynamic UI delivered to double accessibility requirements and content management across the huge multilingual content estate, extensive taxonomy and Azure search integration. 

Personalisation was key to deepen customer engagement and improve conversion rates, so integrations with Azure B2C and CRM for registration drove personalisation of content at an individual level.

Together we delivered a fully customisable website that reflects Pinsent Masons position as a leader in innovation. Not only does it help companies deal with legal issues now, but it also helps spot future hazards using clear, accessible language instead of a legal jargon.

The site content is aimed at decision-makers in need of legal guidance – for example General Counsels or their delegates. The key aim is to enable them to easily find and consume content relevant to their challenge while highlighting Pinsent Masons’ expertise in these areas and promoting contact.

Through the creation of a legal-oriented taxonomy in Sitecore, we were able to deliver and drive personalised and preference-based content, as well as intelligent-related content through integration with Azure Search. This allows users to self-select their areas of interest for both the site and news updates, while also promoting contextually relevant and related content through taxonomy and personalisation rules – all set-up in Sitecore.

To power this we mapped, combined, tagged and migrated a considerable body of valuable content from the outgoing platforms into the new platform and componentised user experience. Ultimately, we achieved the automated migration of all relevant English and multi-language content across 5 languages – including standard Chinese.