Osborne Clarke has announced its 2009 promotions round, with all of the new partner in the firm's Cologne office.

Cologne-based Oliver Esch, Thomas Schnabel and Thomas Funke have been made up in the commercial, construction and competition practices respectively from 1 May.

The promotions come after the firm cited Germany as a priority for growth and investment. However, the absence of any promotions in its remaining five offices is an unusual move for the Bristol-based firm, which last year made up two in London and two in Cologne.

The UK top 30 firm, which has six offices worldwide as well as a network of alliance firms elsewhere, now has 116 partners. Twenty-six of these are in Germany, of which 21 are in Cologne, with five in Munich.

Osborne Clarke managing partner Simon Beswick said: "Promotion to partner is based on both an individual's skill set and a clear business case at a practice group and firm level. Achieving partnership in the current economic climate is therefore not easy."

He added: "The promotion of three new partners in Germany highlights the strong growth for Osborne Clarke in this market and continued investment in our European client offering."

Last month the firm boosted its City real estate practice with the hire of property partner Nick Simpson from Olswang.

On 1 May the firm carried out a management reshuffle with property partner David Powell and corporate partner Greg Leyshon selected to head up the firm's Bristol and Thames Valley offices respectively.

Powell replaced pensions partner Mark Womersley, while Leyshon took over from banking partner Hugh Jones after both served two consecutive three-year terms. Meanwhile, commercial partner Simon Rendell was reappointed as head of the firm's London office for a second three-year term.