Four partners from Ropes & Gray's City office are set to leave the firm in a move that will significantly cut back the US firm's real estate and restructuring-related teams in the capital.

Multiple sources have told Legal Week that the quartet is set to leave following discussions with firmwide management, who travelled into London last week from the US.

All four partners, who Legal Week has decided not to name, work across the firm's restructuring-related and real estate groups. It is understood they met with management on Friday (7 September) and are expected to leave during the coming months.

It is understood that the exits are part of a strategic shift for Ropes as it looks to instil a more global focus in London, where the firm has 26 partners.

In addition to the managed exits, the head of the firm's international real estate investments and transactions group Iain Morpeth will be retiring at the end of the year, in line with the firm's retirement policy.

One former partner said of the exits: "It seems like a bit of a bloodbath over there at the moment. It has for a long time. The last two years have been shaky."

News of the departures comes after Ropes appointed private equity partner Will Rosen as the new co-head of its London base in January this year, to work alongside longstanding co-head and office founder Mike Goetz.

The US firm has seen multiple exits in London during the past two years, with departures including former London co-founder Maurice Allen, investment funds partners Monica Gogna and Anand Damodaran, who joined Dechert and Kirkland & Ellis respectively, and finance partners Mark Wesseldine and Fergus Wheeler to King & Spalding.

Ropes has previously faced criticism from ex-partners about its black-box remuneration system, which makes it relatively easy for management to encourage people towards the door by docking pay in their annual review without actively asking them to leave.

In April, Ropes announced that New York real estate partner David Djaha has been selected to replace David Chapin as firmwide managing partner when he retires at the end of 2019, while corporate partner Julie Jones has been appointed as the firm's first-ever female chair, who is succeeding long-serving leader Bradford Malt.

Allen and Goetz founded the London base in 2010 after previous stints at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case. Allen retired from the firm at the end of 2016 and joined DLA Piper as a consultant the following year.

Ropes posted firmwide revenues of nearly $1.6bn for 2017 – a 7.5% increase on the prior year. While it does not provide revenue breakdowns by office, the firm said the London base enjoyed its best performance last year.

The latest cuts come after the firm shed a 100-strong patent prosecution team last year, with the practice spun off into an independent firm, Haley Guiliano.