A group of City lawyers that campaigned for the UK to vote against Brexit has relaunched, with the appointment of Conservative MP and former attorney general Dominic Grieve QC as president.

The group, formerly known as Lawyers In For Britain, has relaunched as UKLegalFutures after the UK's vote to leave the EU last summer.

The news follows Theresa May's long-awaited speech yesterday (17 January) on her priorities for Brexit negotiations, which include leaving the single market and maintaining control of migration between the UK and the EU.

The group's chair, Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer competition partner John Davies, said the 500-member organisation, which added 200 members in the past year alone, was now aiming to support the UK government with Brexit-related questions.

"We are aiming to provide analysis and support for legislators having to address challenging questions during the course of this year and next year. In order for the group to interface effectively with parliamentarians, we have invited three MPs to join, each with a strong legal background."

Alongside Grieve, the cross-party group has appointed Lord Ken Macdonald QC, Liberal Democrat life peer and former director of public prosecutions of England and Wales, and Labour MP Maria Eagle – who worked as a solicitor before moving into politics – as joint vice-presidents.

Grieve, who served as attorney general in the Conservative-led coalition government, was a prominent Remain campaigner in the run-up to the Brexit vote. In November, he told BBC Newsnight that he was "horrified" by the way some of the media had criticised the judiciary over the Article 50 ruling, which prevented Prime Minister Theresa May from triggering Article 50 without first consulting parliament.

UKLegalFutures has a 25-member steering group, including former King & Wood Mallesons senior partner Stephen Kon, Norton Rose Fulbright global competition head Martin Coleman, Slaughter and May Brussels competition partner Anna Lyle-Smythe and former Clifford Chance EU head of public policy Oliver Bretz, who now runs competition boutique Euclid Law.

Davies added: "This is something I'm doing in my own time. This is not a Freshfields activity, and that goes for everyone involved. This is absolutely not a commercially focused exercise, it is essentially a pro bono exercise where a group of lawyers feel that there is a potentially a valuable role using their expertise."

Separately, pro-Brexit group Lawyers for Britain, which is led by 8 New Square's Martin Howe QC, has filed a written submission with the Supreme Court to intervene in the Article 50 Brexit case, which is currently being considered.

Wedlake Bell City IP partner Clive Thorne instructed eight barristers including Howe to file the submission.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule later this month on whether the government can trigger Article 50, the first formal step towards leaving the EU, without first getting parliament's approval. Lawyers for Britain was granted permission to file the intervention submission in late November.

"We were very concerned about the way in which the government's arguments had not got through. We decided to make an application to intervene in the Supreme Court as an interested party," said Thorne.

Lawyers for Britain has also appointed Richard Aikens, a former Lord Justice of Appeal, as president and Theresa Villiers, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, as vice-president.

"We have the opportunity to get rid of a lot of red tape and EU regulation, so we have decided to continue as an organisation with that objective," commented Thorne. "We want to play a role in the Brexit negotiations and be in a position to advise and prepare papers on new laws that could emerge."

Picture credit: Attorney General's Office