30th July 2021: International legal practice Osborne Clarke achieved a revenue of €341m for 2020/21. This is a 7% per cent increase on 2019/20 (which was €318m) and a 55% increase over five years.
Omar Al-Nuaimi, Osborne Clarke's International CEO, commented: “What we've achieved is the outcome of a lot of dedication and hard work. Despite the challenging circumstances of the last year, our people maintained an excellent level of focus, always keeping clients' needs in mind and working alongside them as many grappled with rapidly evolving business models. We are so proud of their response.
"We've had a number of key highlights since we set our 2020 strategy five years ago. Since 2015/16 our international business has grown 9% year-on-year, we've increased the number of multijurisdictional clients (served in five or more jurisdictions) by 83%, and we've just passed 2,000 people internationally. We're proud of our innovative reputation and we plan to keep that spirit alive with a shared vision going forward.
"Our 2025 strategy is centred on our clients, business, people and community. It's supported by a targeted and bespoke approach to client opportunities that's been very well received. Our Osborne Clarke Solutions Team continues to be a key interface for digital matter management and it's helping us to retain our edge while transforming our international client relationships."
At the start of the year, Osborne Clarke launched a new future-focused three dimensional (3D) client plan that combines legal expertise, sector understanding and transformational insight across three of the interlinked international drivers of change: decarbonisation, digitalisation and urban dynamics.
In the UK, Osborne Clarke's revenue increased by 8% to £166.4m, from £154.6m in 2019/20. The Firm continued to strengthen its financial stability with increasing cash resources to £41.1m, up 14% on 2019/20.
In addition to revenue growth, UK net profit also increased by 14 per cent, from £59.8m in 2019/20, to £67.9m. Profit per equity partner (PEP) was £714k up 16%; compared to £614k in 19/20.
Sectors and services
The Firm's largest sector, technology, media and communications (TMC) grew 21%, followed by retail and consumer increased by 16%, energy and utilities was up by 8%, financial services up 7%, while the other sectors were broadly flat but against strong performances in 2019/20.
Osborne Clarke has maintained a healthy balance of revenue across its four UK service lines. Disputes and Risk saw 14% growth, Business Transactions increased 9%, Projects, Real Estate and Finance grew 3% and Advisory by 2%.
People
Osborne Clarke continues to invest to support the strategic client needs with key lateral hires. Appointing Richard Wilkinson (London real estate), Douglas Hawthorn (London restructuring and insolvency), Tim Harris (life sciences patent litigation in London) and two technology and life science focused venture capital Partners - Rob Hayes and Justin Starling – who joined in Reading along with their team.
Recent international lateral highlights include Mikael Nelson a new TMC partner in Sweden, and Nassim Ghalimi, a top-ranked French lawyer who joins Osborne Clarke to head the restructuring and insolvency team in Paris. At the start of July, Julia Kaufmann, a life sciences and healthcare sector expert in IT and data protection law, joined the team in Germany. Osborne Clarke promoted 12 international Partners in the last year.
"Our people have supported our clients, their colleagues and our business through one of the most volatile periods we have ever experienced. It’s been a massive team effort that has really paid off in our results.
"The whole partnership is truly grateful because we appreciate how mentally taxing the year has been. That's why it's been a priority to support our peoples' health and wellbeing while we also recognise and reward their contributions," said Ray Berg, Osborne Clarke's UK Managing Partner.
Addressing the impacts of Covid19 on people's physical, mental and financial well-being has been one of the key priorities of Osborne Clarke's governance board – The Diversity Champions Forum – that supports, challenges and ensures diversity and inclusion accountability. As signatories of the Mindful Business Charter, The Firm also rolled out a manager toolkit, tailored training sessions and targeted events in the UK to support its commitments to remove unnecessary sources of stress and promote better mental health and well-being in the workplace.
Earlier this year the UK business became members of work-life balance charity, Working Families, it provides access to bespoke support services and webinars from My Family Care, City Parents and its Employee Assistance Programme has been running for several years in the UK.
Diversity and inclusion is a central pillar of Osborne Clarke's business strategy. During the last year, the firm appointed its first Head of Inclusion and Corporate Responsibility, Bola Gibson, who is a member on the Board of Trustees for the Mindful Business Charter; appointed race and sustainability champions on the Executive Board; launched three new strands of the diversity and inclusion strategy; and signed the Law Society's Women in Law Pledge; the Race Fairness Commitment; the Race at Work Charter and Stonewall's Trans Rights are Human Rights' campaign.
