Ian Bagshaw and Richard Youle. Once the most high-profile private equity double act in the City, they are now going solo.

The pair, who met as junior lawyers at Eversheds in the late 1990s before coming together as private equity co-heads at Linklaters, had spent the last two years as global co-heads of private equity at White & Case.

While Youle has joined US rival Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Bagshaw says he is committed to White & Case for the long haul.

As he comments: "I don't see myself ever leaving White & Case. The firm has massively invested in the practice, and it is a challenger brand, which suits my personality. The practice has gone through huge change over the last three years or so and is the better for it."

Although Bagshaw - who now co-heads the private equity practice alongside New York partner Oliver Brahmst - admits that Youle's exit this May with fellow private equity partner Katja Butler was a "setback", he says that it would have been a more "fundamental" stumbling block if it had happened three years ago.

Back in 2014, White & Case's London private equity practice had just three partners, with Bagshaw and Youle initially working alongside Ross Allardice, who joined from Kirkland & Ellis shortly before the former Linklaters duo's arrival in late 2013.

The practice has been built up in recent years with a series of promotions and hires, including the 2015 addition of Clifford Chance partner Caroline Sherrell.

Following the departures of Youle and Butler, as well as the exit of Allardice to Dechert last December, the City private equity team now comprises eight partners and 25 associates. As well as the five associates who followed Youle to Skadden, six others have left the firm's London office following a restructuring of the practice.

Bagshaw is now planning to bolster the practice with new lateral partners – both in London and across Europe.

He comments: "There is a lot still to achieve – we have room to grow as we institutionalise our clients, and also build deeper foundations into the EMEA investor market and not just the private equity investor market."

The firm's key private equity clients in London include CVC, Goldman Sachs, Mid Europa, Bridgepoint, London-based energy investment business Blue Water Energy, UK alternative investment company Novator Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority.

"We are focused on sovereign wealth funds through to family offices as we build out a wider investor practice to support the wide array of different investor styles now prevalent in London and the wider EMEA market."

Bagshaw is clearly keeping busy, with new data from Mergermarket placing him top of a ranking of the UK's most active deal lawyers for the first six months of 2017. During H1 he acted on eight deals worth a total of £5.7bn, including Bridgepoint's £750m acquisition of UK vehicle leasing business Zenith from HgCapital.

Overall, Bagshaw sees the departure of his long-term friend and colleague as an opportunity to move the team forward. "Rich played a pivotal role in establishing our practice in Europe, but he and I became less of the story as time went by, and a number of other partners have now come increasingly to the fore."

He adds: "His departure now creates a huge opportunity for other partners to step up. We see this as a catalyst to get the team together and reinvigorate the business. There are no dissenting voices. It is one step back and should allow us – if we get it right – to take two forward."