Cravath Swaine & Moore has taken the lead role on Time Warner's split from AOL, signalling the end of a $124bn (£77bn) tie-up that in 2000 was the biggest deal ever.

Time Warner returned to Cravath for advice on the spinoff, after the elite US firm acted on on the original merger in 2000.

The merger, struck at the peak of the internet boom, handed roles to Cravath, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (lead counsel to AOL), and Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo (AOL's longtime general counsel). Lawyers involved in the deal included Cravath's Robert Joffe, Simpson's Richard Beattie, and Mintz Levin's Anne Bruno.