Christine Lagarde reflects during the Annual Meeting 2013 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 25, 2013. (Credit: World Economic Forum..swiss-image.ch/Photo Michael Wuertenberg)

Christine Lagarde, the first woman to lead Baker & McKenzie, notched another career milestone on Tuesday when she was tapped as the first lawyer to serve as the next president of the European Central Bank.

Lagarde, 63, is poised to be the first woman and the first non-economist to lead the bank, which sets monetary policy for the eurozone. She has served as the managing director and chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund since 2011.

"Christine Lagarde will, with her international background and standing as current managing director of the International Monetary Fund, be a perfect president of the European Central Bank," said Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, when announcing her nomination on Tuesday.

The European Council can make her appointment official after it consults with the European Parliament and the ECB's Governing Council.

Lagarde started at Baker & McKenzie in 1981, where she practised in the areas of labour and antitrust. She steadily climbed the ladder at the firm, becoming chair in 1999. Her tenure as leader was marked by a sustained drive to turn the firm into a top-tier international practice, primarily through bolstering integration and quality control across the firm.

After her term ended in 2004, Lagarde left the firm in 2005 to become France's foreign trade minister. She was appointed as the country's finance minister in June 2007.

Lagarde was elected to lead the IMF, replacing disgraced former head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in 2011, amid the intensification of Europe's sovereign debt crisis. She has been credited with supplying emergency loans to Greece and several other eurozone nations, to prevent the monetary union from unravelling.

"I am honoured to have been nominated for the presidency of the European Central Bank," she said in a statement on Tuesday. "In light of this, and in consultation with the ethics committee of the IMF executive board, I have decided to temporarily relinquish my responsibilities as managing director of the IMF during the nomination period."