International legal practice Osborne Clarke, which has a major base in Bristol, has said a commitment made last year to invest in programmes aimed at growing its UK income and improving profitability had paid off with both experiencing double-digit growth in 2022/23.
The firm’s net UK profit climbed by 14% to £84.8m on income up 11% at £240.5m during the period. 
Osborne Clarke, which employs around 800 people in Bristol and also has UK offices in London and Reading, said it had increased revenue across all its UK service lines, with double-digit growth in advisory; disputes and risk; and projects, real estate and finance.
Four of the firm’s seven key UK sectors – life sciences and healthcare; retail and consumer; mobility and infrastructure; and energy and utilities – also achieved double digit growth, with strong results across the built environment; and technology, media and comms sectors.
All Osborne Clarke UK staff received a 5% profit share in June – with a £2,000 minimum payment and pro-rated for new starters – while next month the firm starts the first year of a long-term incentive plan that will reward high performers with bonuses up to 40% paid over three years.
Osborne Clarke UK managing partner Conrad Davies said: “This time last year we committed the business to a number of key change and investment programmes aimed at growing our income and improving profitability. I’m delighted that these have really paid off. 
“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and it’s all down to the dedication and commitment of our teams.
“We set ourselves some challenging goals around productivity and efficiency – driving more focus into what we do and how we do it. It’s all about asking our people to work smarter not harder.
“Ensuring more of our income falls to the bottom line gives us the ability to continue to invest heavily in our people and business, which is essential to keep pushing forward with our strategy and to deliver on our client promises.”
Osborne Clarke Bristol office head Lara Burch, pictured above, added: ”It’s fantastic to have secured these strong financial results.
“This year we saw our biggest partner promotion round in the past 10 years, with 11 partners being made up in May – seven of whom were in our Bristol office.”
She said other highlights of the year came from progress against its ‘Osborne Clarke for Good’ framework, including an ongoing collaboration with UWE Bristol and other leading city law firms under the UWE Futures programme. 
“Launched in January, this is an important initiative offering work experience and a mentoring programme for final year undergraduate students from ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds,” Lara added.
“It’s a great example of how we’re working to deliver on commitments set out in our Race Action Plan earlier this year by creating opportunities in our local community.”
Last year the firm relocated its Bristol base from Temple Quay to 74,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art space on the top five floors of the landmark Halo building, pictured, at Finzels Reach – regarded as one of the UK’s most sustainable offices.
International revenue at the firm increased by 19% to €525m (£445m) for 2023/24.
Osborne Clarke international CEO Omar Al-Nuaimi, pictured, said: “This is an excellent set of results and I’m particularly proud we’ve over-delivered on our €500m target a year early. It’s a tribute to all the work of our international teams, who I’d like to thank for their efforts. 
“A big highlight this year was opening our third US office in Miami. The US remains a very exciting market and important for our international clients, and our team has had a successful start in strengthening our relationships across the US, Latin America and Spain.
“We’re also building on our international ESG offering and have invested in growing our energy and utilities sector client teams across the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland.
“Holding ourselves accountable as well, we expect approval on our international near- and long-term commitments to the Science Based Targets very soon as we continue to reduce the carbon emissions across our business.”
