MG Rover used at least 10 different legal firms to advise it before the car company went into administration in April.

The firms, in Britain, Europe and north America, appear on a special list of suppliers maintained manually rather than electronically. The list also includes a political lobbyist, a public relations company and the Inland Revenue.

MG Rover also used the manual list as the means to make payments for parking fines and traffic penalties.

A spokesman for Phoenix Venture Holdings, the private master company controlled by the four men who bought MG Rover from BMW for £10 five years ago, would not comment on why so many different legal firms had been used.

MG Rover's administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, also declined to comment on the manual list contained in its report to creditors.

Industry analysts could offer no explanation why so many different firms had a relationship with the car company. "I can understand why a company of this size would have more than one firm to advise it, but 10 seems to be pushing the boat out a bit," one said.

Only one of the law firms used by MG Rover is listed as a creditor. This is in stark contrast to the position of nine colleges and universities which MG Rover had been using.

In total the educational establishments are owed more than £360,000, mainly for training.

The largest amount, more than £200,000, is owed to Dudley College of Technology. It had worked in partnership with MG Rover for many years providing education and training for the company's apprentices at the Longbridge plant's Centre for Learning. The University of Central England in Birmingham is owed nearly £140,000; Cardiff University is owed more than £6,000.

A meeting of MG Rover's creditors, owed more than £120m, is being held in Birmingham tomorrow. It will provide the administrators with their first opportunity to outline the progress being made with selling either MG Rover or what remains of its assets.