Slaughter and May has been instructed to advise Anglo-Dutch consumer products group Unilever on the disposal of the majority of its European frozen foods business, worth around £1bn.

Slaughters is Unilever's main corporate adviser, and corporate partner Gary Eaborn and head of corporate Christopher Saul will lead a team of lawyers, currently being put together, on the disposal. Other Slaughters partners who work closely with Unilever include Cathy Connolly (IP), Charles Cameron (pensions and employment), Sara Luder (tax) and Michael Rowe (competition).

On 9 February, the company announced its intention to put its frozen foods brands, including Birds Eye and Iglo, up for sale, after a strategic review last year. It will continue to own and run its Italian frozen foods business.

Eaborn told Legal Week: "It is a sizeable transaction of the kind that we would expect them to give their main corporate advisers. It will be an interesting deal – Birds Eye is an iconic brand in the UK."

The sale of the frozen food portfolio is expected to raise around £1bn, with private equity houses CapVest, Blackstone Partners and BC Partners all touted as potential bidders.

Past work the magic circle firm has carried out for Unilever include advising it on a structural review of its management last year, acting on the £5bn disposal of its speciality chemicals division to ICI in 1997 and on the sale of its dessert business Ambrosia to Premier Foods in 2003. It also advised on the $1.1bn (£629m) sale of Unilever's DiverseyLever institutional and industrial cleaning business to Johnson Wax Professional in 2001 and its 2000 acquisition of Bestfoods, valued at $24bn (£13.7bn).

Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, which carries out a lot of property work for Unilever, may also win a role on the sell-off.