Travers Smith has grown its environment and safety group with the hire of Allen & Overy's (A&O) former head of global environmental law, Owen Lomas.

Lomas joined Travers last week as a consultant after a 19-year stint at the magic circle firm.

He stepped down as practice head at A&O in 2009 and has been working as a consultant at the firm for the past two years.

He specialises in the strategic management of environmental, planning and health and safety issues on a standalone basis and in the context of M&A, corporate finance, property transactions and energy infrastructure projects.

Travers managing partner Andrew Lilley said: "Our offering in the environment sector is increasingly significant, and we are particularly focusing on the product side of things.

"This aspect is especially important to our corporate clients and Owen's wide experience and contacts in Europe and the US will add further credibility to our offering."

Travers carried out a strategic review of the group last year, which saw senior associate Doug Bryden appointed as group head and the practice refocused on environmental, health and safety litigation, regulatory and risk management, renewable energy and cleantech and transaction and project support.

The news follows a wider refocus of the firm's business around a number of key sectors in a bid to deepen relationships with existing clients and attract new work, which was announced in August this year.

The firm has initially outlined five key sectors – financial services, leisure, healthcare, retail and infrastructure.

For more, see Travers Smith set to target five key sectors in strategy overhaul.