Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

The Hydrogen Map: Data as Market Authority

Overview

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP is a global law firm with more than 700 attorneys across 20 offices. A longstanding leader in energy and technology, the firm advises clients at moments of structural industry change.

In 2021, Pillsbury launched the Hydrogen Map—the first publicly available, interactive resource tracking low-carbon hydrogen projects worldwide. The map transformed proprietary data into a global intelligence platform, reinforcing Pillsbury’s leadership in the clean energy transition and redefining how law firms thought leadership can drive visibility and business development.

The Strategic Challenge

As the first global law firm to establish a dedicated hydrogen practice, Pillsbury faced a visibility challenge—not a credibility one.

Traditional marketing could not match the pace or complexity of a rapidly emerging sector shaped by policy, capital, and innovation. Pillsbury needed a tool that would engage investors, policymakers, developers, and media—positioning the firm as an essential participant in the hydrogen economy, not simply its legal counsel.

Our Approach

ICVM Hawk conceived and built the Hydrogen Map as a strategic content platform rather than a marketing asset.

Using raw Excel data as the foundation, we created an interactive experience that:

• Translates complex project data into a clear, global view of the hydrogen market
• Enables filtering by geography, technology type, and project stage
• Functions as a living intelligence resource, not a static dataset

The result is a tool Pillsbury partners describe as indispensable to policymakers, industry participants, investors, analysts, and journalists.

Results

The Hydrogen Map delivered immediate impact:

• Visibility

  Widespread coverage across global energy and infrastructure media, praised for its depth and utility

• Authority

  Reinforced Pillsbury’s position as a leading voice in hydrogen and clean energy

• Business Development 

  Adopted internally as a flagship BD tool, driving new client engagements

• Innovation

  Demonstrated how law firms can create durable value by delivering tools the market actually uses

Building on this success, Pillsbury has engaged ICVM Hawk to develop additional map-driven platforms for wind energy and natural resource damages (NRD), as well as multiple practice-focused thought leadership microsites.