Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have named their first combined governance body ahead of their 1 May merger, confirming details of the firm's board.

The 12-member Hogan Lovells board will play a supervisory role, overseeing partner issues and management affairs.

The board will not have executive responsibility for strategy, management or operating decisions but will instead take recommendations from the combined international management committee (IMC) to the partnership, as well as providing input to management.

Its specific responsibilities include determining partner compensation matters, managing the firm's lateral partner hiring and internal partner promotions and dealing with the elevation of non-equity partners to the equity.

Chaired by firmwide co-chairs John Young (pictured) and Claudette Christian, in consultation with joint chief executives David Harris and Warren Gorrell, the board will meet monthly from 1 May.

The board has eight regional representatives, split evenly between Lovells and Hogan. Young told Legal Week: "The chief executives and the IMC will present recommendations for which the board has supervisory responsibility or final approval authority."

The board regional representatives are: Jose Maria Balana (Lovells, Madrid); Nicholas Cheffings (Lovells, London); David Dunn (Hogan, New York); Marc Gottridge (Lovells, New York); Gernod Meinel (Hogan, Berlin); Andreas Meyer (Lovells, Hamburg); Michael Silver (Hogan, Baltimore); and Jun Wei (Hogan, Beijing).