Project summary

Client: Mishcon de Reya
Industry: Legal Services
Project: Website redesign and enterprise CMS development
Platform: PilotSite
Website: https://www.mishcon.com/

The client

Mishcon de Reya is one of the UK’s leading independent law firms, providing legal services to businesses, institutions and private individuals across a broad range of practice areas. With an international reputation for delivering complex legal advice, the firm’s website plays a vital role in showcasing its expertise, people and thought leadership.

PilotBean partnered with Mishcon de Reya to redesign and redevelop its website using the PilotSite content management platform, creating a modern digital experience that reflects the firm’s reputation while providing a powerful publishing platform for its marketing team.

Services provided:

• PilotSite CMS Development
• Enterprise Content Management
• Lawyer Profile Management
• Search & Navigation
• Content automation
• System integrations
• Hosting support
• Responsive Development
• Ongoing Support

A long-term digital partnership

PilotBean’s relationship with Mishcon de Reya spans more than 20 years, evolving alongside the firm’s digital requirements, technology and ways of working.

Over that time, PilotBean has delivered multiple generations of the technology platform, continually adapting and enhancing the website as the firm’s needs and the wider digital landscape have changed.

As Mishcon de Reya’s working practices and strategic priorities have evolved, PilotBean has adapted both its systems and approach to project delivery to meet the firm’s changing requirements.

We have adopted an agile, continuous delivery approach that allows us to respond flexibly as priorities shift and strategic goals are refined. New features and enhancements can be delivered iteratively, enabling the platform to evolve continuously rather than relying on large, infrequent releases.

Importantly, continuity has remained at the heart of the relationship. Members of the core PilotBean development team have worked with Mishcon de Reya throughout the partnership, building an in-depth understanding of the firm’s systems, requirements and digital strategy.

This combination of long-term knowledge, adaptable technology and agile delivery allows PilotBean to operate as an ongoing technology partner, responding quickly to changing priorities while helping Mishcon de Reya’s digital platform evolve in line with its wider strategic goals.

The challenge

Mishcon de Reya required a modern website capable of representing one of the UK’s leading law firms while supporting a significant volume of specialist legal content.

The existing website needed to evolve into a flexible publishing platform that would allow the marketing team to efficiently manage lawyer profiles, services, sectors, news and thought leadership while ensuring visitors could quickly find the information most relevant to them.

The solution also needed to provide a consistent experience across desktop, tablet and mobile devices while remaining scalable for future growth.

The solution

PilotBean designed and developed a bespoke digital platform using the PilotSite content management system, combining an intuitive editorial experience with a fast, modern website built around the needs of both visitors and content editors.

Enterprise content management

At the heart of the project is PilotSite, providing the marketing team with a flexible content management platform capable of managing every aspect of the website.

Lawyer profiles, practice areas, sectors, news articles, insights and supporting content can all be managed through a consistent editorial interface, making it simple to keep content accurate, organised and up to date.

Intelligent content relationships

The platform has been designed to intelligently connect related content throughout the website.

Lawyers, services, sectors, publications and news articles can be linked together, helping visitors discover relevant expertise while creating a richer browsing experience and reducing manual content management.

Search and navigation

With a large volume of specialist legal content, helping visitors quickly find the information they need was a key priority.

Clear navigation, intuitive content structure and advanced search functionality allow users to locate lawyers, practice areas and legal insights efficiently, improving the overall user experience.

AI-powered content and task automation

PilotSite uses AI-powered automation to support the Mishcon de Reya marketing team with day-to-day content management and publishing tasks.

AI can automatically generate content summaries and extract relevant search terms from published content, reducing repetitive editorial work while helping ensure new content is immediately discoverable through the website’s search experience.

These capabilities allow the editorial team to manage growing volumes of content more efficiently while maintaining consistency across the site.

Lawyer profile management

Professional profiles are a key part of any legal website, helping prospective clients understand the expertise and experience available across the firm.

The website provides dedicated management tools for lawyer biographies, areas of specialism, publications and related content, ensuring profiles remain comprehensive and easy to maintain.

AI-driven search

To help visitors navigate a large and continually evolving library of legal expertise and insight, the website incorporates AI-driven search capabilities designed to better understand what users are looking for.

Rather than relying solely on exact keyword matches, AI helps interpret search requests and connect them with the most relevant lawyers, services, sectors and content available on the website.

This creates a more intuitive search experience and helps visitors discover relevant expertise even when the terminology they use differs from that used within the firm’s content.

Recruitment chatbots

Mishcon de Reya’s annual recruitment and pupillage programmes generate significant interest from students and prospective applicants, often resulting in large numbers of questions around schemes, eligibility, applications and induction processes.

Context-sensitive recruitment chatbots help visitors find answers to common questions and guide prospective applicants towards the schemes, resources and information most relevant to them.

This provides candidates with an accessible way to navigate recruitment information while helping reduce the administrative burden associated with responding to frequently asked questions.

Interactive expert systems

PilotBean has developed content-managed expert systems that transform complex information into engaging, guided digital experiences.

These multi-step tools allow visitors to follow different paths based on their requirements and responses, progressively presenting the information most relevant to their situation.

Content and pathways can be managed through the CMS, enabling Mishcon de Reya’s teams to maintain sophisticated interactive experiences without requiring development work for routine content changes.

Personalised and regional content

The platform can adapt selected website content according to a visitor’s location, creating a more relevant experience for audiences across different regions.

Location detection can be used to personalise calls to action, recommended content and other contextual information, helping visitors discover services, expertise and resources that are most appropriate to them.

This allows Mishcon de Reya to maintain a consistent global digital presence while introducing greater relevance for individual audiences.

Secure client portals

PilotBean has developed private client areas that extend the digital experience beyond the public website.

Secure client portals provide access to client-only content alongside curated news, insights and information tailored to individual client interests.

This creates a more personalised digital environment for clients while giving Mishcon de Reya the ability to deliver relevant content and resources to specific audiences through a controlled and secure platform.

Built for every device

The website has been developed using a responsive, mobile-first approach to ensure a consistent browsing experience across desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

Whether researching legal services in the office or on the move, visitors can easily access the information they need from any device.

Shared profile data and image management

Staff information is used across a wide range of public-facing and internal systems, making consistency and accuracy particularly important.

PilotBean has integrated Active Directory profile data with website content and internal applications, helping establish a single source of truth for staff information.

Profile details and shared image assets can be used across the Mishcon de Reya website and an internal social media application, reducing duplication and helping ensure staff information remains consistent wherever it appears.

API integrations and business intelligence

The platform includes bespoke API integrations that allow website data to be securely shared with other systems across the business.

Custom-developed APIs provide website content and usage data to Power BI, enabling deeper analysis, reporting and visibility into the performance and use of digital content.

PilotBean has also used SharePoint APIs to power a bespoke reporting application supporting business and marketing planning across the firm.

These integrations enable the website and PilotSite platform to form part of Mishcon de Reya’s wider digital ecosystem, connecting content, analytics and internal business systems rather than operating as a standalone website.

Resilient cloud-based hosting

The Mishcon de Reya platform is hosted within Microsoft Azure, providing a secure, resilient and scalable infrastructure designed to support the firm’s ongoing digital requirements.

Services are distributed across infrastructure in the UK and Hong Kong, providing regional coverage and additional resilience through geographic separation. Multiple availability zones help maintain service continuity in the event of localised infrastructure issues.

Web traffic is load balanced across multiple instances to maintain performance and availability, while firewalls and additional security controls provide protection against unauthorised access and external threats.

A high-availability database architecture provides further resilience for critical data, supported by comprehensive backup and disaster recovery processes designed to enable systems and data to be restored following a major incident.

The hosting environment also incorporates measures to support reliable email delivery, helping ensure communications generated by the platform reach their intended recipients.

Together, these measures provide Mishcon de Reya with a robust hosting environment designed around security, performance and business continuity.

A platform designed to grow

PilotSite provides a flexible foundation that enables the website to evolve alongside the business.

As new services, sectors and content are introduced, the platform allows the marketing team to expand the website without compromising consistency, usability or performance.

The outcome

The redesigned website provides Mishcon de Reya with a modern digital presence that reflects the firm’s reputation while making it easier for prospective clients to explore its expertise and services.

PilotSite gives the marketing team a powerful yet intuitive platform for managing complex legal content, helping ensure information remains accurate, consistent and easy to maintain.
PilotBean continues to support Mishcon de Reya with ongoing enhancements, ensuring the platform continues to evolve alongside the firm’s digital strategy and future requirements.