Julie Smith - Trustee

Julie is a lawyer at Ofwat and works within the Regulators Alliance for the Progression of Infrastructure (“RAPID”) a partnership of three of the regulators of the water sector (Ofwat, Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate), which was formed in 2019 to help facilitate the development of new large-scale strategic water supplies by water companies.

Julie was previously Head of Legal Services at Affinity Water from 2016 to 2019. Prior to joining Affinity Water in 2016, Julie was a Principal Solicitor at Canal & River Trust.  Canal & River Trust is the charity established in 2012 to protect and look after over 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales.

Julie’s time at the Canal & River Trust has given her a working knowledge of charities law. Julie was involved in advising on third party funding agreements and issues relating to volunteering and holding of events as well as on environmental and commercial law issues.

Julie joined British Waterways from the Environmental Law Team at Simmons & Simmons, where she advised a diverse range of clients on a full range of environmental law issues.  She started her career as an Environmental Scientist for Southern Water before re-training as a solicitor.

Julie became a Trustee for Groundwork East in June 2017.

Julie sits on the Infrastructure Sub-committee.