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Water

DWF's dedicated water lawyers provide comprehensive solutions to the water sector across all legal areas – based on our deep sector knowledge and experience working with some of the largest statutory undertakers in the market.

The water industry is in a period of significant change. Heightened regulatory scrutiny, wide-ranging legislative reform, increased environmental expectations and substantial AMP8 investment are reshaping the operating landscape for water and wastewater companies. At DWF, our water lawyers combine deep sector knowledge with innovative legal solutions, across all legal areas, to help you navigate these challenges and seize opportunities for growth.

Our water lawyers are leaders in their field, known for their comprehensive legal support across the entire water supply chain, trusted by large water and sewage undertakers, investors and contractors.

Our full-service team of water lawyers are committed to service excellence and the delivery of commercial solutions and outcomes. Whatever your project, we use our combined legal knowledge and sector expertise to save you time, money and to reduce risk.

We also ensure that comprehensive support and guidance is tailored to your specific needs and we use our sector focussed experience, often gained through multiple in-house secondments, to help you meet the challenges of this ever-growing and changing sector.

We recognise the pressures facing your business and the importance of trusted advisors who can support delivery, protect reputation, and enable sound decision-making. Our approach is grounded in close collaboration, responsiveness and a strong understanding of the regulatory and operational environment in which you operate.

Our expertise in the Water market

Commercial Litigation

Commercial Litigation

Our specialist commercial litigation teams help water companies resolve disputes quickly and strategically – whilst preserving their reputations. From small claims to complex multi‑track and arbitration matters, we operate at the intersection of risk, governance and commercial strategy, to deliver integrated dispute resolution support. Our multidisciplinary model brings together dispute resolution lawyers with business consultants, innovation and process specialists to provide end to end legal management solutions.

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Data Protection

Data Protection

We have extensive experience supporting clients through urgent and complex data incidents, including attending rapid-response board calls, gathering critical information, advising on the legality of ransom payments, and coordinating communications, data discovery, forensics, regulatory engagement, and IT rebuild efforts. Complementing this, our hands-on support for water sector DPO and commercial teams spans DSARs, data sharing agreements, breach triage, ransomware incidents, and operational governance. Additionally, our Data Protection Extend & Accelerate is a flexible resourcing service designed to help organisations rapidly scale their data protection capability in response to changing workloads, regulatory pressure or temporary resourcing gaps.

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Competition

Competition

We have a well-established competition and antitrust practice supporting regulated Water companies on the full range of competition law risks arising within complex, highly regulated markets. Our specialists support water companies facing CMA scrutiny, designing resilient compliance frameworks, managing sector-specific risks, and aligning competition law strategy with broader commercial objectives to deliver practical, cost-efficient outcomes. Our team can advise on the application of UK and EU competition law to commercial agreements and collaborative arrangements, anticompetitive agreements, leniency applications, personal liability, antitrust audits, compliance programmes, dawn raid management, market power abuses, merger control, public procurement and subsidy control.

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Real Estate

Real Estate

We advise on all aspects of water sector development activity, including land assembly, planning strategy, infrastructure rights, title issues, access matters and complex disposals. With years of experience supporting large Water companies' portfolios, we ensure development decisions are efficient, compliant and commercially sound. With our Real Estate Portfolio Management service, we can also support the day-to-day management of extensive water sector estates, handling leases, easements, wayleaves, adverse possession, access rights, boundary disputes and asset protection matters. We blend legal precision with operational understanding to safeguard critical infrastructure and streamline portfolio activity.

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Commercial & Procurement

Commercial & Procurement

DWF’s commercial and procurement experts bring deep experience across outsourcing, technology, supply chain arrangements, R&D collaborations and Water-specific procurement regimes – helping water companies draft robust contracts, manage risk, develop efficient procurement strategies and stay ahead of evolving regulatory requirements, including the Procurement Act. We work to understand the key business drivers and agree clear team responsibilities and project governance, ensuring every contract or procurement exercise is aligned with your strategic, commercial and regulatory objectives.

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Construction

Construction

Our team has a strong track record acting for clients in the Water sector, providing full lifecycle support across contentious and non-contentious matters. We have represented clients in large-scale water infrastructure projects, including treatment facilities, desalination plants and major projects delivered under Ofwat’s Direct Procurement for Customers regime. Our work spans from advising on NEC-based frameworks, FIDIC, JCT, call-off structures and development agreements, to supporting procurement, delivery risk and contract administration. We also represent clients across a range of dispute resolution forums in issues arising under PFI, EPC, utilities contracts, procurement challenges and commercial disputes.

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Employment & Pensions

Employment & Pensions

We help water organisations shape high-performing workplace cultures, manage workforce risk and deliver successful organisational change. Our team combines deep sector expertise with practical, technology-enabled delivery to support clients on workforce strategy, organisational culture, employee relations, employment tribunal disputes, industrial relations, policy development, recruitment, immigration and TUPE. We work with organisations to assess culture, strengthen governance and promote positive workplace behaviours, helping create resilient and engaged workforces. We also advise on pensions governance, de-risking and LGPS matters, drawing on extensive experience supporting trustees and stakeholders on strategic projects and long-term decision-making within regulated environments.

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Planning

Planning

Our team combines in-depth planning capability with extensive experience including strategic advice, development, national infrastructure projects, highways, heritage and conservation, environmental and regulatory matters, compulsory purchase, and portfolio acquisitions and disposals. We can support your organization with planning strategy preparation, including the application of permitted development rights; written and oral representations to the Planning Inspectorate for DCOs, including protective provisions drafting and negotiation; planning and infrastructure agreements; biodiversity net gain requirements and establishing biodiversity gain sites; providing planning input into development service agreements, funding, collaboration and other commercial agreements.

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Regulatory defence and health & safety

Regulatory defence and health & safety

Our team combines in-depth planning capability with extensive experience including strategic advice, development, national infrastructure projects, highways, heritage and conservation, environmental and regulatory matters, compulsory purchase, and portfolio acquisitions and disposals. We can support your organization with planning strategy preparation, including the application of permitted development rights; written and oral representations to the Planning Inspectorate for DCOs, including protective provisions drafting and negotiation; planning and infrastructure agreements; biodiversity net gain requirements and establishing biodiversity gain sites; providing planning input into development service agreements, funding, collaboration and other commercial agreements.
Regulatory prosecutions

Regulatory prosecutions

We have represented major water and sewage undertakes on a broad spectrum of regulatory prosecutions over the years. Our team comprises ex-prosecutors, who know how to prosecute effectively whilst also saving time and costs for our clients. Our advice includes advising on regulatory investigations, enforcement decision-making, evidence gathering and prosecution strategy. With deep experience in industry standard prosecutions – including FOG, standpipe and trade effluent matters – our dedicated team front-loads evidence, streamlines case preparation, and uses proven templates and processes to reduce cost and avoid delays. We also advise on alternative enforcement routes, cost recovery opportunities and practical resolutions where these better serve commercial objectives.

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Environmental regulation

Environmental regulation

We assist organisations, including water companies, in managing environmental and safety obligations across pollution incidents, permitting, operational risk, investigation response, crisis management, and engagement with regulators. Our ex EA/HSE specialists provide robust, early strategies to mitigate prosecution risk and protect operational resilience. We also have expertise in advising clients on drought orders and permits, environmental permitting and abstraction licences, wholesale water supply regime, PFAS and obligations under The Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Corporate

Corporate

Our corporate team advises on acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and strategic investments across the water sector and other highly regulated industries. With a large, multidisciplinary team, we deliver efficient, well governed transactions supported by regulatory, real estate, commercial, employment, pensions, tax, competition and other specialists. We apply a consistent, technology enabled approach, using tailored first draft documents, streamlined due diligence and balanced negotiation strategies to keep deals moving and manage risk. We are also experienced in acting for both buyers and sellers, including in smaller transactions where counterparties or advisers may be less familiar with corporate dealmaking.

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Insurance & Insurance Claims

Insurance & Insurance Claims

Our specialist insurance team brings deep expertise across the water sector, advising on a broad spectrum of claims including network infrastructure losses, pollution and contamination events, asset failure, leakage and escape of water, and major incident response. We also provide support across motor and fleet, casualty, property, construction and engineering, product liability, and cyber and data/privacy matters, together with professional, financial and management liability exposures. Our advice is grounded in the realities of ageing infrastructure, climate-related risk, supply interruptions, and increasing scrutiny from regulators such as Ofwat and the Environment Agency. We provide strategic, sector-focused advice and combine forensic causation analysis, technical engineering evidence, and early engagement with stakeholders, including regulators and loss adjusters.

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The evolving landscape of water infrastructure delivery: The DPC regime

The Direct Procurement for Customers regime, introduced by Ofwat, transforms UK water infrastructure delivery through competitive tendering.

Small panel oil and gas

DWF advises STRABAG UK Limited on landmark water infrastructure project HARP

DWF, the global provider of integrated legal and business services, has acted as key legal advisor to STRABAG UK Limited on the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP), a major water infrastructure initiative led by United Utilities to upgrade the aqueduct serving over 2.5 million people across the North West of England.

Small panel water and utilities

“Natascha Gaut and Prem Thakor always deliver promptly and work very hard to digest and deliver on work streams. Natascha is always on hand to take a call and a brilliant lawyer who has impeccable judgment and a great understanding of the water sector.”

Legal 500, Health & Safety London 2026

“The construction advice they offer is thorough and exactly what is requested. It is helpful and set out in a way that is digestible for the wider non-legal team.”

Chambers & Partners, Construction, UK 2026

“Michelle is one of the best environmental lawyers in the country. She consistently has the perfect balance of being wonderful to work with, combined with a technical and strategic knowledge.”

Chambers & Partners, Environment, UK 2026

“DWF showed an understanding of the issues from the outset and approached the presentation of our case in a commercial fashion.”

Chambers & Partners, Planning & Environment, UK 2026

“Jonathan Branton is extremely highly regarded for state aid.” and “I don't think there's anyone in the country with his depth of expertise, and he's the number one person to go to for me.”

Chambers & Partners, Competition Law, UK 2026

Natascha Gaut

Partner

United Kingdom

Ben McLeod

Partner

United Kingdom

Michelle Headrige

Partner // Global Head of Environment

United Kingdom