Locke Lord has taken the headline legal role as DVD and video games rental company Blockbuster filed for administration for the second time this year.

Yesterday (11 November), joint administrators Simon Thomas and Nick O'Reilly of Moorfields Corporate Recovery announced they had been appointed to lead the restructuring of Blockbuster holding company TS Operations.

Locke Lord is advising Moorfields, with London restructuring partner David Grant leading a team that includes corporate and private equity partner Graham Spitz and real estate partner Ayesha Hasan.

The firm came to the role through its connections with Gordon Brothers, the private equity owner of Blockbuster which acquired the company in March 2013 after an administration led by Deloitte.

Gordon Brothers had sought to turn around the historically loss-making company through business restructuring, landlord negotiations and a new digital platform, though Moorfields said a licensing agreement had not been reached in time and coincided with a period of poor trading.

Earlier this year, Spitz led a team advising Gordon Brothers on the administration of fashion retailer Republic. The deal saw Linklaters take the lead role for administrators Ernst & Young, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton act for Republic owners TPG Capital.

CMS Cameron McKenna restructuring partners Rita Lowe and Ashley Smith, who previously advised Deloitte on the administration of Blockbuster in January, are not advising this time round.

The January administration also yielded a mandate to Linklaters' New York partner Daniel Dufner, who advised parent company Blockbuster LLC. Dufner has since moved to White & Case.

Blockbuster currently employs around 2000 staff at its 264 stores. At the beginning of the year it had twice as many staff and outlets.

"We are pleased to say that there are parties who are interested in parts of the business," commented joint administrator Simon Thomas, who said retail trade would continue as normal while Blockbuster was in administration.

"Our focus will be to secure a future for as much of the business as possible as well as trying to save jobs before Christmas."