Osborne Clarke appoints new UK managing partner from 2023

Published by

Peter Davison

Bristol-based international legal practice Osborne Clarke has elected Conrad Davies as its new UK Managing Partner with effect from January 1, 2023.

Conrad, currently a corporate partner and the international head of the urban dynamics group, will succeed Ray Berg, who fulfilled eight years in the role.

Having spent more than 17 years at Osborne Clarke, Conrad became a partner in 2011 and was previously at Jones Day.

He helped to establish the firm's corporate real estate practice 10 years ago and also headed up the firm's international real estate and infrastructure sector for seven years.

He was instrumental in leading the team that established the firm's 2025 client strategy. Most recently he was also appointed as international transformation leader for urban dynamics, which is focused on supporting clients as they navigate the legal impacts, challenges and business opportunities arising from the rapid changes taking place in modern cities and towns, particularly around the future of work and living, smart cities and urban mobility.

Before qualifying as a lawyer, Conrad spent five years working in business – so he understands his clients’ needs from both a legal and commercial perspective.

Conrad said: "I am thrilled to be appointed as managing partner. They will be big shoes to fill, but I am up for the challenge and I look forward to building on all the good work that’s been done as I lead the firm for the next four years."

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.