White & Case's City arm is looking increasingly like the unhappy child of the credit boom. While the practice could do no wrong in 2006 and 2007, achieving City revenues of around £100m after a period of explosive growth, the news revealed today by Legal Week that it is losing four finance partners leaves it looking badly off the blistering pace it managed a just few years back.

Even in isolation the departures would be highly significant, including well-known names like Chris Kandel and Brian Conway. But coming on the heels of an unsettled 2008 and 2009, during which the firm went through a painful restructuring and lost a number of high-profile partners, it is clear White & Case's position outside its traditional stronghold of projects is facing a serious challenge.

And in many ways, the latest departures look more damaging than the much published loss two years ago of finance duo Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. At that time, it had been clear that the pair were unhappy with the direction of the firm for a while. The departures at least offered the chance to clear the air and the firm was hardly short of talented banking partners ready to fill their sizeable shoes.

Since then the bench in banking has shrunk considerably with 2009 seeing the departures of capital markets partners Tim Jeveons, Andrew Croxford and Andrew Caunt for Greenberg Traurig Maher. Restructuring partner Dan Hamilton also quit for Ashurst and high yield specialist Jonathan Bloom rejoined Allen and Goetz at Ropes & Gray. Rachel Hatfield also left last year.

So the latest departures leave a much-depleted team. Attention will in particular focus on White & Case's relationship with key clients like Deutsche Bank. Kandel had been put in overall charge of the Deutsche relationship after the departure of Goetz, and there is some evidence the relationship had been impacted by last year's departures, in particular that of Hamilton. With Kandel and co moving to Latham there will also be much attention on if White & Case can maintain its links with Goldman Sachs.

Likewise, the firm now looks vulnerable in three areas in which it had achieved so much so rapidly: acquisition finance, capital markets and restructuring.

White & Case is making no secret of its disappointment that this has happened just as the firm appeared to have settled down again after its redundancy programme. However, the firm has pledged that bank finance remains a core part of its London strategy and it is ready to rebuild. White & Case will certainly have to make good on that fighting talk if it wants to retain that hard-won position in the City finance market.

White & Case on the Legal Week Wiki