Taylor Wessing was instructed by Tower Hamlets Council after the local authority learnt the BBC was investigating allegations of corruption earlier this year.

The council paid the firm more than £80,000 as it allegedly sought for a way to block a broadcast.

The council invited law firms to bid for an advisory mandate after learning the BBC was planning to run a film investigating the distribution of public money to local charities by Mayor Lutfur Rahman. Panorama's film – 'The Mayor and Our Money' – was ultimately broadcast in April.

Taylor Wessing's team was led by head of intellectual property and media and entertainment Niri Shan. The firm was instructed by the council for approximately three onths from February 2014, receiving total fees of £81,924.

A Tower Hamlets council spokesperson said the it had "no in-house legal experience or capacity to deal with issues of journalistic standards and editorial compliance, so suitably experienced external legal firms were approached to pitch for the work."

The spokesperson added: "Taylor Wessing were selected and advised on the operation of BBC guidelines, based on their experience of tackling investigative reporting and regulatory compliance by the BBC and also on the editorial decision-making processes within the BBC.".

The firm also advised on data protection issues arising from a leak of personal information to the BBC.

According to the Evening Standard, the brief to bidding firms also asked them to look into the possibility that a judicial review could be used to block the programme prior to broadcast based on the BBC's editorial guidelines.