Willkie Farr & Gallagher has advised troubled cable giant Adelphia Communications on the securing of a $8.8bn (£4.82bn) financing package to fund its Chapter 11 exit facility.

The communications group has finally received commitments from JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse First Boston, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank to finance its Chapter 11 reorganisation, which was filed last month in the Southern Bankruptcy Court of New York.

Willkie Farr partners Marc Abrams, Maurice Lefkort and Cornelius Finnegan led the team advising Adelphia.

Top banking adviser Davis Polk & Wardwell advised the creditor banks on the deal through corporate partners Karin Day and Tiziana Bason.

Abrams told Legal Week: "This is among the largest, if not the largest, exit facilities in the history of corporate reorganisation."

Willkie Farr, which has built its top-tier insolvency practice around advising debtors, has been involved with the company's bankruptcy since it filed for Chapter 11 in 2002.

Adelphia is the latest in a stream of major restructurings to hit the US after three years in which big ticket corporate insolvency work for companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing has buoyed up US law firms.

Willkie Farr, rated along with Weil Gotshal & Manges as one of the US' top restructuring shops, recently announced that its fee income in 2003 was up 10% to $353m (£186.6m), with average profits per partner hitting $1.41m (£745,500).