Tom Lyas

Head of Resourcing & Social Mobility @Browne Jacobson

Nottingham, GB

As part of the People Leadership Team, I have strategic accountability for all the firm’s resourcing, onboarding & social mobility activity & teams. I lead a fantastic group, ensuring best in class delivery of all Legal (Partner, LD, Principal Associate, Senior Associate, Associate) Central Support (Finance, Client & Marketing, People, IT, PR, Business Operations, Risk & Compliance) and Legal Support hires. I ensure our strategic resource plans are able to meet the firms commercial, people & cultural, and Powerhouse objectives. I am proud supporter of the firms DEI Steering Committee and co-created the firms social mobility strategy alongside our Head of DEI. I designed and launched the firms FAIRE initiative and lead the firm to achieve the No.1 ranking in The Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index four times (2021, 2022, 2024 & 2025). Our firm has experienced fantastic growth over a sustained period, and with continued growth planned for the coming years as part of our Powerhouse strategy. I also have accountability for all hires into our Emerging Talent population (Trainees, Apprentices & Summer Vacation programmes) as well as ownership of the firms new joiner onboarding and integration processes.Since Jan 2017 my team has delivered recruitment savings (via direct sourcing) in excess of £7m and executed over hires (including 100+ external lateral partners).I help with the ever evolving development of the firms employer brand and EVP campaigns each year, and lead the continual development and implementation of any recruitment systems (ATS, RARE Contextualised Recruitment, talent platform etc.).All in all I wake up (most!) days and can’t wait to get to work. I love what I do, work with an outstanding team, and am grateful that each week I genuinely get the opportunity to make a difference to hundreds of people’s career prospects.

West Bridgford Comprehensive School

Sports Science, Chemistry, Geography A-levels