Labour lawyers in the City are clubbing together for the first time to help the government on issues such as creating the “super-SIB” financial regulator, drafting the new competition bill and re-invigorating the private finance initiative (PFI).

Freshfields competition assistant Catriona Munro, a member of the Society of Labour Lawyers, is forming a corporate and finance group within the society. She has secured Alistair Darling, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to speak to the group at its inaugural meeting on 8 October.

Munro, who said she was acting in a personal capacity rather than representing her firm, said experts on financial services regulators, PFI and competition law had already been identified in the society.

The Wednesday meeting, she hoped, would help recruit more.

The initiative is part of a concerted effort by the Society of Labour Lawyers to boost its links with Labour supporters in the City.

Last December, the society announced a ground-breaking initiative to raise money for the Labour Party by staging a series of City seminars in the run-up to the general election.

However, the project had to be abandoned because not enough lawyers signed up to the seminars.

Munro said the seminars had been designed more to explain Labour's policy than to raise money.