Pinsent Masons came into being on 6 december 2004, as a result of the merger of two complementary, strongly client and sector facing, well established law firms, Pinsents and Masons. It has a legal team of around 900 and more than 1500 staff worldwide. The firm ranks by size in the top 15 of UK law firms and in the top 100 of law firms globally. Pinsent Masons operates worldwide, in Europe, South America, the Middle East, India and the Far East.

Unusually for a firm of its size, Pinsent Masons provides legal services to selected industries in various selected disciplines, of which water is one. Water related work for Pinsent Masons means work in the fields of drinking water, wastewater, desalination, industrial water re-use, irrigation, water resource management and hydro projects. It means regulatory work, project work, corporate, commercial and financing work and, if necessary, dispute resolution work.

Pinsent Masons' Water Sector Group was established in 1995 and consists of more than 15 partners and Senior Associates across the firm's network of offices. Since its creation it has been involved in over 60 different projects worldwide, ranging from wastewater projects in Scotland and Northern Ireland to projects in New Zealand and Egypt. The firm has experience of acting for all the principal parties in project related work in the water and wastewater sectors: employers, funders, bidding consortia, project vehicles and subcontractors.

The Water Sector Group lawyers are familiar with the issues that arise across the water supply chain. We seamlessly integrate lawyers from our corporate, banking and finance, planning, public and environmental, EU procurement/competition and employment groups with our core project and construction lawyers in order that we can provide a comprehensive approach to developing structural arrangements for the delivery of water and wastewater services that satisfy our clients' strategic and commercial objectives.

Specific issues on which we advise the water industry include:

• Projects
• Corporate activity and private equity
• Dispute resolution
• Health and safety
• Joint ventures, partnering, framework agreements and alliances
• Pensions
• Public procurement and competition
• Regulation

The experience of Pinsent Masons in the industry is reflected in the annual publication of the Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook, a widely recognised reference standard. The seventh edition of this Yearbook was published in November 2005.