The International Bar Association's (IBA) section on business law has set up a heavyweight advisory board of 20 senior general counsel from multinational corporations in a bid to increase the influence of in-house lawyers.

UK-based general counsel on the board include Keith Clark, managing director and international general counsel at investment bank Morgan Stanley; Steven Williams, general counsel of consumer goods company Unilever; Rupert Bondy, general counsel at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline; and Peter Bevan, group legal counsel at BP.

The board will advise the IBA's corporate counsel forum on how to play a central role in policy making, both within and outside the association, and ensure in-house positions on major issues are put forward.

It will also act as a discussion platform for in-house counsel on substantive legal and managerial issues.

Jan Eijsbouts, general counsel at Dutch pharmaceutical company Akzo Nobel and chairman of the new board, told the Gazette that in the past the IBA had not recognised in-house counsel structurally as a group of importance, despite the fact that approximately 3,000 members of the 16,000-strong organisation work for corporations.

Mr Eijsbouts said key areas the board would cover include corporate governance, legal risk management and legal privilege for in-house counsel.

'We need to make sure that what we feel is important is adequately addressed,' he said.

'In-house lawyers now have a much higher profile within their companies.'

Other members of the new board include Bruno Cova, lead counsel to the administrator of troubled Italian diary giant Parmalat; William Lytton, general counsel of US conglomerate Tyco; and Eva Persson, general counsel at Swedish car manufacturer Volvo.

Philip Hoult