Tom Short
Senior associate solicitor
Tom Short is a senior associate solicitor in the human rights department.
Tom Short is a senior associate solicitor in the human rights department. Tom specialises in cases relating to environmental damage and human rights abuses involving UK-based multinational corporations.
What people say
Tom is brilliant to work with. He shares our passion and determination to get things done and always delivers.
Chambers and partners 2025
Legal expertise
Tom trained at Allen & Overy LLP and qualified into the firm’s Environmental & Regulatory Law group. He worked as an associate in the firm’s London and New York offices on a range of corporate environmental and human rights-related matters, advising on issues such as contaminated land liability, environmental import-export issues, climate change & EU ETS, bribery and sanctions, Equator Principles and environmental information. Tom then worked in Kenya with Peace Brigades International setting up a new Human Rights Defenders project before moving to Malawi where he was a Legal Fellow of Reprieve. Supervised by Professor Sandra Babcock of Cornell University Tom worked on a large-scale capital mitigation investigation and re-sentencing project. Tom is co-author of a mitigation investigation guide produced in conjunction with the Malawi Human Rights Commission. Directly prior to joining Leigh Day, Tom worked as a public law solicitor at Bates, Wells & Braithwaite.
Tom joined Leigh Day to work on the UK first’s successful High Court case against a British company in relation to modern slavery, Galdikas v DJ Houghton [2016]. The case was settled in favour of our clients in 2016.
Tom works primarily on international cases with an environmental aspect. He is currently investigating a potential claim in Brazil.
Before converting to law, Tom studied Philosophy and German at University College London, graduating with a first class honours degree and going on to studying for a master’s degree in Philosophy at Oxford University where he was a St Anne’s Graduates Ethics Scholar and funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council.
Tom in the news
Tom has recently spoken on environmental issues and corporate accountability at:
- HOMA, V International Seminar on Human Rights & Business, Juiz de For a, Brazil, September 2018
- Public Interest Environmental Law (PIEL), Environmental Litigation: Has the Green Revolution Reached the Courts?, London, April 2018
- Warwick University’s Centre for Law, Regulation & Governance of the Global Economy (GLOBE), Climate Change Law, Litigation and Governance, Warwick, February 2018.
What the directories say
Tom Short has very good client management skills. He has a good mix of intelligence and sensitivity. He is very hardworking
Chambers and partners 2025
News
Social justice organisation has “serious concerns” over planned Foreign Office job swap scheme with Shell and BAE Systems
Social justice organisation The Corner House has instructed lawyers to raise serious concerns about the lawfulness of plans for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff and workers from Shell and BAE Systems to be involved in a job exchange.
Asylum seekers on British Indian Ocean Territory of Diego Garcia will be transferred to UK
Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have been held for more than three years on the island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago that is currently under colonial rule by the British Indian Island Territory Administration (BIOTA) will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the UK.
Asylum seekers on Diego Garcia granted further limited freedoms by the High Court
The High Court in London has granted bail to 47 asylum seekers who have been stranded on Diego Garcia for the last three years.
KLM Judgment: The intensifying scrutiny of corporate greenwashing across Europe
Anthony Hayward, Joe Snape and Tom Short discuss the KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) judgment and the impact on other corporations greenwashing across Europe
Asylum seekers stranded on Diego Garcia win challenge against return to Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan asylum seekers have won their fight not to be forcibly returned to Sri Lanka in a Government climbdown just days before they were due to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT).
Sri Lankan families detained in British Indian Ocean Territory in despair over hopes of international protection
Members of a group of 89 Sri Lankan adults and children who have been detained for over seven months on a military base more than 1,500 miles from the mainland in the middle of the Indian Ocean have gone on hunger strike in a desperate plea for help over their isolation.
Accreditations
