Five partners have left NautaDutilh's Rotterdam office as rivals question the future of the Dutch leader's local outpost.

Nauta firm-wide litigation and arbitration chief Bart van Tongeren and employment partner Jennifer Willemsen joined local boutique Schipper Van der Mersch this month.

In addition employment partner Simon Tan is joining Faasen & Partners on 1 February, while shipping partner Arnold van Steenderen has formed his own practice. Tax partner Roderick Bouwman is leaving for the local practice of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

The departures leave Nauta with only one employment partner based in Rotterdam, against four in the team in June last year, while the firm's local shipping practice is also down to one partner.

The spate of departures follows the announcement in November 2005 that the firm was to downsize the office to focus resources on its more profitable Amsterdam practice.

However, Nauta has continued to deny suggestions that it would entirely withdraw from the local market.

Speaking in the wake of the latest departures, Nauta managing partner Marc Blom said the moves were reached by mutual consent.

He told Legal Week: "We want to have a broad range of products for the clients but they must have interaction and relevance to each other."

However, others in the market questioned the need for the firm to have a Rotterdam office, if the firm is to focus on big ticket transactions. Speaking to Legal Week, one rival partner said: "Nauta now has two offices doing high-end work, which seems unnecessary."

Leading Dutch firms have been trimming down their partnerships and practice areas over the last two years. In March last year, Nauta ditched its private client practice and fellow Dutch giant, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, closed its family law practice. De Brauw also took the decision to close down its Rotterdam and The Hague offices by 2008, leaving just the Amsterdam office in the Netherlands.