QC Christopher Winneke will lead the legal team assisting the royal commission into the Informer 3838 scandal, which is set to probe Victoria Police’s decision to use a prominent defence lawyer as a police informant during the gangland war.

The veteran Melbourne barrister was previously counsel assisting at the inquest into the murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine, a double execution that proved central to police recruiting Informer 3838 in 2004-05.

The Victorian government announced the royal commission late last year after the publication of a series of court judgements and confidential reviews found Victoria Police had engaged in "reprehensible conduct" by recruiting a lawyer as an intelligence source, sometimes against her own clients.

The royal commission will examine whether police's use of Informer 3838 had contaminated arrests and could lead to criminal convictions being overturned.

Mr Winneke's selection, and those of junior counsel assisting Andrew Woods and Megan Tittensor, mark the last significant appointments before the work of the Royal Commission into Management of Informants begins.