Osborne Clarke is a Bristol law firm of very long-standing and for many years it played the quirky, laid-back counterpoint to the more conservative Burges Salmon in that city. Then in the 1990s it roared into the limelight by spotting the opportunity in the technology sector. The dotcom boom years saw the firm prosper as it acted for the early internet and technology companies. The firm even opened in Silicon Valley to capitalise on this type of work. The dotcom
Osborne Clarke is a Bristol law firm of very long-standing and for many years it played the quirky, laid-back counterpoint to the more conservative Burges Salmon in that city. Then in the 1990s it roared into the limelight by spotting the opportunity in the technology sector. The dotcom boom years saw the firm prosper as it acted for the early internet and technology companies. The firm even opened in Silicon Valley to capitalise on this type of work.
The dotcom crash that followed hit Osborne Clarke exceptionally hard, with profits slumping and a string of partner exits. The firm was also struggling to make its London office, opened in 1987, a strong enough corporate force.
The man tasked with extricating Osborne Clarke from its problems was the firm’s most prominent corporate partner, Simon Beswick, who had been out of the UK heading up the firm’s fledgling Silicon Valley office. He took over as managing partner in 2002 and by the time he stepped down from the role in 2015 he had transformed the firm from a regional player with a turnover of £60.9m into an 18-office £142m heavyweight with a centre of gravity in London.
The transformation took time. After navigating the recession, it was still unclear exactly what Osborne Clarke wanted to be famous for. In 2010, some sort of answer was forthcoming when the firm restructured around four distinct sector groups: financial services, real estate, energy and digital business (formerly known as TMT). It has since bolted on a handful more sectors, bringing its tally up to seven. This strategy has proved remarkably successful, and led to Osborne Clarke being named The Lawyer’s firm of the year in 2015.
In the UK it still has only three offices – Bristol, London and Reading – however, it has been adventurous internationally, opening in the likes of Hamburg, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Milan, Padova and Brescia. Osborne Clarke also launched in New York and San Francisco, while the firm’s Silicon Valley office became an important gateway to tech clients.
Fittingly for the areas it operates in, Osborne Clarke has been among the most adventurous law firms when it comes to branding and embraced a corporate image that – until recently at least – was distinctive from the rest of the market. Its traditional feline logo has finally been retired, though. Rumour has it that its original creation simply came about because ‘Orange Cat’ has the same initials as Osborne Clarke.
| Appointed | Managing partner | ||
| 1994 | Leslie Perrin | Senior partner | |
| 2002 | Simon Beswick | Leslie Perrin (full-time role created) | |
| 2006 | Tim Birt | International CEO | |
| 2012 | Simon Beswick (role created) | ||
| 2014 | Andrew Saul | ||
| 2015 | Ray Berg | ||
| 2021 | Omar Al-Nuaimi | ||
| 2022 | Peter Clough | ||
| 2023 | Conrad Davies |
