NORTH West law firms are hiring solicitors faster than at any time during the recession, according to specialist recruiters.

And the pattern of hiring junior lawyers in place of departing senior solicitors seems to be coming to an end, said EM Legal.

Firms eager to cut their wage bill had been opting to take on less experienced staff to replace costly long-termers.

But according to EM senior partner James Hitti, firms are looking at the bigger picture more and are able to consider lateral and strategic hires to aid growth.

Mr Hitti said: “The market for commercial lawyers has become noticeably more vibrant over the last few months throughout the North West – most notably in Manchester and Liverpool.

“The number of law firms looking to increase their staffing levels in commercial and property related fields is on the up and although the sector has yet to return to pre-recession hiring trends, there are positive signs that the market is once again moving with a number of new opportunities arising in the last quarter.”

If the upturn continues, it would mark the end of one of the gloomiest periods the legal sector has weathered in a generation.

In Merseyside, that saw 190-year-old Wirral firm Lees Lloyd Whitley go into administration with the loss of dozens of jobs.

In 2009, DLA Piper’s Liverpool office saw 13 jobs go. Liverpool-based Hill Dickinson also suffered redundancies.

And, before it went into administration, Halliwells went through at least two rounds of job losses.

According to Mr Hitti, hiring within the commercial and property legal sectors showed signs of slowing down during autumn 2007 and by the second half of 2008 the market had reached meltdown, and remained inactive until late 2009.

Despite a sluggish start to 2010, recruitment activity has picked up and continues to show signs of growth.

One of the examples of growth appears to be at Kirwans, which this week announced more than a dozen new recruits have started at the firm over the past two months.

They include new head of employment David Jones and seven new personal injury lawyers. The firm’s managing partner Simon Gibson told LDP Legal: “We are seeing strong growth across a number of departments in the firm and we are continuing to recruit extensively in order to continue providing the same quality of service our clients expect.

“We expect to continue recruiting heavily during the coming months and would be delighted to hear from ambitious lawyers keen to join one of the region’s fastest growing firms.”

Kirwans, which has a Liverpool office and two more on the Wirral, now has almost 100 staff.

Last month DLA Piper also announced it was retaining all five trainees at its Liverpool office.

Mace & Jones also added Matthew Smith to its employment team. Mr Smith joined the firm from Lees.