Are you a law student or recent graduate looking to gain practical, hands-on experience within an in-house Legal team?
We have an exciting opportunity to join Affinity Water and support an important Land Terrier and digitisation project on a 3 Month FTC basis. This placement will give you the chance to put your legal knowledge into practice, working directly with historic title deeds, conveyances, transfers, easements, wayleaves, leases, licences, plans and other property documents.
The main focus of the role will be supporting our Legal team to review, organise and digitise our property records, while gaining valuable exposure to property and land law and seeing first-hand how an in-house Legal team helps protect the land and assets that support our water network.
Location / Hours: This is a full time 100% office-based position. Some flexibility around working hours may be considered for the suitable candidate.
Start Date: We are looking for someone is available to join the team immediately.
Location: Hatfield (100% office-based)
Key Responsibilities
Organise and catalogue title deeds and other property documents.
Review deed packets containing historic conveyances, transfers, leases, licences, easements, wayleaves, deeds of grant, title plans and other legal documents.
Prepare original documents for scanning, ensuring all pages, plans and attachments are included.
Scan and accurately name documents before uploading them to the appropriate electronic matter or property title folder.
Record key information from deeds within our land and property databases, including InfoTrack and Landarna.
Cross-reference historic deeds against Land Registry title registers, title plans and existing electronic records.
Identify and flag missing, duplicated, incomplete, damaged or incorrectly filed documents.
Highlight important rights, restrictions, covenants, easements and operational asset information for review by the Legal team.
Support the identification of historic rights relating to water mains, pumping stations, reservoirs and other Affinity Water infrastructure.
Maintain accurate records of where original and electronic documents are stored.
Support wider property legal work where appropriate, including land disposals, leases, licences, easements, access agreements and wayleaves.
Attend relevant Legal team meetings and provide updates on the progress of the Land Terrier project.
What You’ll Bring
We’re looking for someone who is keen to learn and interested in developing their legal experience in a practical environment. You’ll ideally have:
A genuine interest in property, land or commercial law.
Excellent attention to detail and strong organisational skills.
Confidence working with large volumes of documents.
Good written communication skills.
Good Microsoft Word, Excel and general IT skills.
The ability to work methodically and accurately.
The ability to handle original and historic documents carefully.
An understanding of confidentiality and data protection.
A willingness to ask questions and learn from members of the Legal team.
This opportunity would be particularly suited to a current law student, final-year law student or recent law graduate looking to gain practical in-house legal experience.
What You’ll Learn
This placement will give you practical exposure to property and land law that goes beyond academic study. You’ll gain experience reading and understanding real legal documents and seeing how historic deeds continue to affect the ownership, use and management of land today.
You’ll develop an understanding of:
Registered and unregistered land
Title registers and title plans
Historic conveyances and transfers
Easements, rights of way and rights for utilities
Restrictive and positive covenants
Leases, licences and occupational arrangements
Land ownership and property databases
The importance of accurate legal records and document retention
The role of an in-house Legal team in protecting operational land and assets
You’ll work under the supervision of the Affinity Water Legal team, with training provided on the handling, scanning, naming and recording of deeds, together with guidance on the relevant databases and filing systems.
Benefits
Salary: £24,800
Learning and development opportunities, including mentoring and a range of formal courses and open learning resources.
Entry into the company annual bonus scheme.
Annual leave from 26-30 rising with length of service, and the option to purchase up to 5 extra days.
A ‘Celebration Day’ in addition to public holidays that people can use to celebrate a religious festival or other occasion that is important to them.
A generous 'double match pension scheme' that doubles the contributions you make (company contribution capped at 12%).
We offer a range of family benefits including enhanced Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave, Fertility Support Leave and up to 5 full or 10 half days of paid Carers Leave.
Menopause policy and Reasonable Adjustment policy to help everyone perform at their best.
Access to our Wellbeing Centre with support for looking after your physical and mental health.
Discounts at a Range of Retail Outlets and on Dental and Medical Insurance through our Tap4Perks scheme.
Up to 4 Affinity days a year to volunteer in the community.
Life Assurance.
Disability Confident
As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to offering interviews to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria and opt in on the application form. Ask the Talent Acquisition lead for the full job description to see all the criteria. If we have a very high volume of applicants and we’re not able to offer interviews to all, we’ll take a fair and proportionate number of disabled candidates through.
Affinity Water recognises the benefits of greater diversity in our workforce to better reflect the communities we serve. We are committed to building a more inclusive culture where every member of our workforce can thrive.
You can find out what it’s like to work at Affinity Water through our career site https://www.affinitywatercareers.co.uk/ where our colleagues share their career development stories and you can get a feel for our company culture.
