LCH Clearnet – the main clearing house of the London Stock Exchange – has named barrister Iona Levine as its new general counsel.

Levine – the co-founder of niche finance set Minerva Chambers – will head up an in-house team of two lawyers and three support staff and report to chief executive Roger Liddell.

She takes on the role from former general counsel Susan Ward, who left the clearing house last autumn.

Levine previously helped to establish the Dubai International Finance Exchange and has held in-house role at financial institutions including Citibank, Barclays Capital and HSBC.

LCH Clearnet, which regularly instructs Clifford Chance for external legal advice, is one of the prime clearing houses in Europe and serves major international exchanges including Euronext, ICE Futures and BrokerTec.

Last year LCH Clearnet cleared 1.25 billion contracts and had a turnover of more than £400m.

Liddell said in a statement: "At this key time in the development of the group we are pleased to have Iona's very relevant experience and skills to move us forward."