Jones Day and Denton Wilde Sapte have taken lead roles on the administration of social housing giant Connaught, which has placed thousands of UK jobs under threat.

Jones Day is acting for Connaught with a team led by London head of capital markets Giles Elliott and head of restructuring Adam Plainer.

Denton Wilde Sapte is acting for KPMG, which was today confirmed as the administrator, with a team led by restructuring head Nigel Barnett and restructuring partner Graham Paine.

Bingham McCutchen is also advising on the administration, taking a role for the noteholders. City finance head Barry Russell and restructuring partner Tom Bannister are leading the US firm's team.

Connaught had attempted to restructure around £220m of debt but the failure to secure additional funding from lenders became clear yesterday (7 September) when the company's shares stopped trading.

Connaught's collapse marks the biggest corporate bankruptcy since Woolworths fell victim to the credit crunch two years ago.

Plainer said: "Despite the difficult trading environment we will be working hard with KPMG to try to secure the future of Connaught Partnerships and its staff, and will continue to advise the rest of the group"

Connaught Group employs almost 10,000 people and specialises in social housing as well as waste management, cleaning and forestry services.