Lawyers from major city firms, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer antitrust partner John Davies, have come together to set up a legal network supporting a campaign to keep Britain in the European Union (EU).

Davies, who is understood to have taken an informal leadership role with the group, will be working alongside lawyers from the Bar and from universities backing British Influence (BI), a cross-party campaign to keep Britain in a reformed EU.

In a statement from British Influence, Davies said: "A legal network can play a significant role in the current debate. Lawyers like seeing the facts before reaching their conclusion and we can help in getting those facts straight."

Davies will be campaigning in a personal capacity since Freshfields' policy as a firm is to stay politically neutral.

'Lawyers against Brexit', as the group has been labelled, came out of a BI debate earlier this week. The meeting was attended by more than 100 people and included a presentation by former Secretary of State for Justice Ken Clarke.

BI director Peter Wilding, said: "The network will prove an invaluable tool to provide the campaign with legal knowledge and expert rebuttal. But it will also spread the message to other members of the legal services community up and down the country about the potential losses for the UK and our booming legal sector if we were to leave the EU."

In a survey of partners published by Legal Week last month, 32% of the respondents said they believed Britain's exit from the EU was either 'very likely' (5%) or 'quite likely' (28%) while 59% said a withdrawal would have an adverse affect on their firm.