Ropes & Gray’s newly-launched City practice has secured a trophy mandate after being instructed to advise cable group Liberty Global on deal finance for its €3.5bn (£3.1bn) takeover of Germany’s Unitymedia.

The US law firm was instructed two weeks ago to handle the high yield debt backing the acquisition, one of the largest media deals since the credit crunch crippled the leveraged finance market in 2007.