International law firm Osborne Clarke – which employs more than 500 people in its Bristol office – has re-elected Ray Berg unopposed for a second four-year term as UK managing partner. He will also continue to be a member of the firm’s international board.
Ray, pictured, a corporate lawyer for more than 25 years, joined the firm in 2001 and became head of its business transactions group in 2011. 
He was elected UK managing partner in 2015, taking over from Simon Beswick, who had managed the firm for 12 years. Later in 2015, Osborne Clarke completed a legal sector first and was awarded Law Firm of the Year by both The Lawyer and Legal Business.
Over the past five years the firm has almost doubled its total UK income from £76m to £139m, most recently achieving a 15% revenue increase in the UK for financial year 2017/18, with 14% international growth.
Ray said: “We’ve achieved a lot during the last four years but there’s more we can do. I plan to continue to invest and develop our people and our business to make Osborne Clarke the law firm of the future.
“Recruitment and retention, innovation and technology are all still on the list, but a big focus will also continue to be around making our business more diverse. We want to provide more opportunities for more talented people to succeed.”
To reinforce this, Osborne Clarke has introduced a wide range of initiatives focused on social mobility, diversity and wellbeing that have led to greater engagement among employees and recognition from industry bodies.
Ray is a trustee of the Social Mobility Business Partnership and sits on the steering committee of RollOnMonday, a programme that works with St Mungo’s to break the cycle of homelessness.
He is also involved in supporting Bristol City Council’s SteppingUp Programme, which aims to encourage more people from BME backgrounds into senior leadership roles across the city. Over the past year, under Ray’s leadership, the firm has launched female progression initiatives, networking groups for LGBT+ and BME staff and is setting up a disability network.
The firm has landed a number of industry accolades during Ray’s term, including appearing for the past three years in the top five of the independent Firm of the Year employee survey staged by RollOnFriday, the popular – and often irreverent – source of news and gossip for the legal sector, scoring highly for its friendly culture and management.
It was also commended in the FT Innovative Lawyer Awards in 2017 and 2018 for its Osborne Clarke Solutions shared technology project, and earlier this month landed two accolades at the Bristol Law Society Awards – winning Large Firm of the Year while employment lawyer Phillip Chivers landed the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year title.
Osborne Clarke senior partner Andrew Saul, who has also been re-elected for another four years, added: “I’m not in the least surprised Ray has been re-elected unopposed as during his first term he has proven himself to be an extremely popular, effective and successful leader of the firm.”
