Legal recruiters have seen a ‘substantial upturn’ in the law firm jobs market in the past three months, and are predicting a still more buoyant year ahead.

The positive forecasts came as a new survey predicted a 7% rise in graduate vacancies in the legal sector this year.

Colin Loth, manager of the legal teams at recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark, said he had seen a 50% increase in the number of new vacancies for lawyers compared to three months ago – ‘a substantial upturn’. He said: ‘Week on week we’re seeing improvements.’

Loth said US and City firms were starting to recruit again in their traditional areas of: corporate; commercial; finance; dispute resolution and litigation. He noted that the number of property jobs was also increasing.

Loth put the timing of the upturn down to a general increase in confidence among law firms after a year of ‘uncertainty and procrastination’. But he said renewed activity could also be attributable to some firms cutting back too much and then being stretched by their current workloads.

‘A lot of firms don’t want to be seen to be hiring too soon after they’ve let people go,’ he said. ‘So those firms which made redundancies at the start of last year are starting to gear up again after a year has passed.’

Overall, Loth said the forecast for 2010 is better than last year, but the continued growth in the jobs market will depend on the economy.

Mike Walker, group manager at recruitment firm Taylor Root, said he had seen a 40% upturn since September 2009, but the market is still ‘relatively tough’.

‘There has always been partner recruitment where people had business to take with them, but associate roles in corporate, finance and litigation are now coming back into the market and firms are starting to plan ahead,’ said Walker.

He added: ‘The market in London has been stronger than in the regions, but internationally it is lagging behind.’

Claire Whisker, director of specialist recruitment website totallylegal.com, said employment, family and personal injury had remained buoyant during the downturn, but since the end of 2009 she had seen a 10% increase in jobs posted for specialisms ranging from environmental law to M&A.

Meanwhile, the latest survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters predicted a 7.4% rise in legal sector jobs in 2010. However, it showed the median starting salary for lawyers had fallen from £38,250 last year to £35,000 this year, putting law firms in second place behind investment banks.