Osborne Clarke has swooped on EY Law’s Luther Menold to launch a three-partner Munich office, as the Bristol-based firm unveils ambitious plans to ramp up its German offering.

The firm has secured Luther Menold’s Munich head and corporate partner Matthias Elser alongside IP partner Tim Reinhard and private equity and venture capital specialist Martin Sundermann. A group of associates is also joining.

Managing partner Simon Beswick said the move was designed to capitalise on private equity and technology opportunities in Munich and forms part of a strategy to build a major national presence in Germany.

A number of the firm’s key clients, including Adobe, Invensys, Microsoft, Open Text, 3i and Yahoo!, have operations in Munich.

Osborne Clarke’s German offering was reduced to a single Cologne office after the 2003 defection of its four Frankfurt partners. The exits forced the firm to close the office after two and a half years.

The new Munich office is expected to launch in May.

The departures follow last week’s exit of three Luther Menold partners to launch the Munich branch of US firm Reed Smith.