Senior Conflicts Analyst in Bristol

We have a new opportunity for a Senior Conflicts Analyst to join our Risk & Compliance team, in a full‑time, permanent role, based out of our Bristol office on a hybrid working arrangement. Our business services professionals play a vital role in enabling our lawyers to deliver a high‑quality, efficient service to our clients. The Risk & Compliance team is central to this, ensuring that clients and matters are accepted in line with professional conduct rules and internal risk policies, and that the firm’s regulatory, reputational and commercial interests are protected.

The Senior Conflicts Analyst will act as a senior subject‑matter expert on conflicts of interest, leading the identification, analysis and management of legal and commercial conflicts across the firm. Working as a senior specialist within the Risk & Compliance team, the Senior Conflicts Analyst:

• provides advanced technical guidance to partners, fee earners and business services teams
• supports the design and implementation of conflicts policies, processes and systems
• serves as a central escalation point for complex and sensitive conflict issues
• contributes to firm‑wide client and matter inception governance
• supports the CMI Operations Manager and wider Risk & Compliance leadership team in setting and embedding best practice

The role plays a key part in protecting the firm’s regulatory, reputational and commercial interests. You will work closely with partners and fee‑earners in the UK and international OC offices, the General Counsel, Risk & Compliance Leadership, and key Business Services stakeholders (including Finance, HR and IT). You will be expected to:

• deliver a professional, high standard of service to the business
• promote a culture of collaboration and innovation through effective communication across OC UK and OC International
• contribute to a positive and supportive team culture, where diversity of thought and continuous personal development is highly valued

Key Responsibilities

• Conflicts identification and complex analysis
  • Lead the review and analysis of conflict checks for complex, cross‑practice and cross‑jurisdictional matters, major new client relationships, panel appointments and strategic mandates.
  • Conduct and oversee detailed conflict searches using the firm’s conflicts database and other internal systems, ensuring high quality, well documented outputs.
  • Interpret complex fact patterns, corporate structures and party relationships, providing clear, risk‑based recommendations and practical options to partners and matter teams.
  • Provide advanced advice on nuanced conflict risks, including own interest conflicts, client conflicts, positional conflicts, confidential information and successive representation.
  • Ensure that conflict assessments are undertaken in line with professional conduct rules, internal policies and the firm’s risk appetite, documenting the rationale for decisions and recommendations.
• Advisory support, decision‑making and escalation
  • Act as a trusted adviser to partners and senior stakeholders on conflict issues, balancing legal, regulatory and commercial considerations in your guidance.
  • Lead the resolution of sensitive or contentious conflict situations, including where the firm may need to decline instructions, impose conditions or cease acting.
  • Prepare clear written analyses and recommendations for Risk & Compliance senior management and General Counsel on high risk or complex matters.
  • Exercise sound judgement on escalation thresholds, escalating appropriately and supporting the General Counsel in determining the firm’s position on complex or high impact cases.
  • Support Client Relationship partners and matter managers in managing discussions with clients about conflicts, waivers and informed consents, ensuring communications are accurate, balanced and consistent with firm policy.
• Client/matter acceptance, information barriers and confidentiality
  • Oversee and quality check conflicts work associated with major new client relationships, high value matters and panel pitches, ensuring alignment with client and matter acceptance procedures.
  • Design, implement and monitor robust information barriers and ethical walls for approved matters, working closely with IT and AML/CMI teams to ensure appropriate practical controls are in place.
  • Draft, review and coordinate conflict waivers, informed consents and engagement terms dealing with conflicts, ensuring appropriate documentation and approvals are obtained and recorded.
  • Provide clear, practical guidance to lawyers and business services teams on compliance with information barrier protocols and confidentiality requirements, including onboarding and changes to barrier populations.
  • Work collaboratively with AML/CMI colleagues to ensure that conflicts analysis is integrated with broader client/matter inception controls and that cross‑dependencies are well managed.
• Policy, process and systems development
  • Contribute significantly to the development, review and enhancement of conflicts policies, procedures, guidance and templates, ensuring they remain compliant, practical and aligned with best practice.
  • Help define, document and embed best practice in conflicts checking and client/matter inception processes across the firm, promoting consistency across offices and practice groups.
  • Work with IT and other stakeholders to specify, test and optimise conflicts systems, databases and search functionality, including participation in user acceptance testing and feedback loops.
  • Identify trends and recurring issues arising from conflicts analysis and casework, recommending and supporting improvements that reduce risk and increase efficiency and user experience.
  • Support the Risk & Compliance leadership in communicating policy and process changes and ensuring they are understood and adopted across the firm.
• Monitoring, reporting and audit support
  • Maintain comprehensive and accurate records of conflict checks, advice, approvals and decisions for audit, regulatory and client panel purposes.
  • Produce and interpret MI, dashboards and trend reports on conflicts activity, highlighting systemic risks, pressure points and improvement opportunities to CMI leadership and General Counsel.
  • Support internal and external audits, regulatory reviews and client panel audits relating to conflicts and client/matter inception, including responding to queries and implementing agreed actions.
  • Contribute to firm‑wide risk assessments in relation to conflicts of interest, supporting the documentation and periodic review of the firm’s conflict risk profile and control effectiveness.

You may also be required to provide support on broader Risk & Compliance initiatives, including cross‑functional projects and regulatory change programmes, where conflicts expertise is relevant.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone with significant experience in a similar conflicts or R&C role gained within a professional services environment. You’ll also need to demonstrate a deep understanding of conflicts of interest in a legal/regulatory context and strong familiarity with relevant professional conduct rules (e.g. SRA Standards & Regulations and/or applicable local bar rules). As a Senior Analyst you’ll also need to have a proven track record in handling complex, multi‑party, multi‑jurisdictional conflicts analysis and providing clear, well‑reasoned recommendations.

More Specifically We’re Looking For

• Client centric Strong client service mindset and professionalism; effective in a global, multicultural environment with the ability to influence and build trusted relationships at all levels.
• Commerciality Strong understanding of the commercial context of a global law firm; able to balance risk management with client service and pragmatic delivery.
• Communication Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to explain complex conflict and confidentiality issues succinctly and persuasively to non‑specialists. Confident in constructively challenging assumptions, probing for relevant information and facilitating informed decision‑making.
• Technical competence Expert analytical and research skills with strong attention to detail; able to interpret complex corporate ownership structures, multi‑jurisdictional conflict scenarios and nuanced AML risks.
• Decision making Exercises sound professional judgment and makes timely, independent decisions; remains calm under pressure and in challenging situations. Clear understanding of escalation thresholds; able to own decisions within policy and recommend well‑reasoned exceptions.
• Organisation Highly methodical and organised with advanced prioritisation skills; able to manage multiple complex and urgent matters concurrently, delivering consistently to deadlines and a high standard.
• Management Able to provide informal leadership, coaching and technical supervision to junior team members, supporting their development and quality of work.
• Technology Confident user of practice management systems, conflicts/search databases and Microsoft Office tools; comfortable working with data and MI to identify trends and issues.
• Career and development Committed to the development of others; provides feedback, mentoring and knowledge‑sharing; sets and maintains quality standards and role‑models OC values.

Salary And Benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision‑making. We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations. Our sector‑based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it’s fundamental to our success. At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks – not to mention our great teams – are a part of making that a reality.