Working increasingly in the water sector in recent months, the planning and environment team at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP handles both contentious and non-contentious mandates across the mining, infrastructure, and planning sectors. Practice head Catherine Howard specialises in planning, consents and environmental law, frequently advising commercial developers and promoters of energy and infrastructure projects. Silke Goldberg focuses on the energy sector across Europe, ranging clean energy generation projects to climate change liability and litigation issues. Recent additions to the team include Joanne Holbrook who advises on all aspects of environmental compliance, risk and liability; and Julie Goulbourne, who specialises on environmental defence matters. Both Holbrook and Goulbourne joined from Addleshaw Goddard.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘HSF’s Environment team has a depth of talent and culture of intellectual rigour that is unsurpassed. ’

  • ‘Catherine Howard is brilliant, and truly peerless. Her attention to detail and drive to win makes for an incredibly powerful combination. She has assembled a team around her that emulates her example and provides a first class service.’

  • ‘What makes them unique is the willingness to go above and beyond to achieve the client's objectives in the best possible way. That can-do attitude is a huge asset.'

  • ‘I have worked with Joanne Holbrook who is very customer focused and provides a high quality service. She can be a critical friend and a strong advocate to support compliance and performance. She has an in-depth knowledge of the water industry and I would highly recommend.’

Key clients

  • Southern Water
  • Anglian Water Group
  • Severn Trent Water
  • Thames Water
  • Water Resources South East
  • Geosyntec
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Logicor
  • Indaver UK Limited
  • Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
  • Transmission Capital Limited Partners
  • BP Group
  • British Land
  • London Luton Airport Limited
  • EDF
  • Sizewell C
  • Cornish Lithium
  • Zydus Group
  • Gridlink Interconnector / Icon Infrastructure
  • Valero Energy Limited
  • Martin-Brower
  • Glencore
  • British American Tobacco
  • Sumitomo
  • Global Water Partnership
  • Colorifix

Work highlights

  • Following successful Court of Appeal action, supporting Sizewell C on environmental consents for project implementation.
  • Strategic adviser to Southern Water on many supply and wastewater issues and its strategic plans.
  • Acting for Glencore in a comprehensive exercise relating to non-financial disclosure requirements (ISSB, CSRD, ESRS and CS3D).

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Catherine Howard

Other key lawyers

Silke Goldberg, Joanne Holbrook, Julie Goulbourne