Clifford Chance (CC) is looking to bolster its junior associate headcount in four key practices after holding its first recruitment summit since before the financial crisis.

The magic circle firm invited more than 50 recruitment agencies to a briefing last month with the aim of hiring junior associates, particularly those with two to four years' post-qualification experience, in its finance, corporate and private equity, capital markets and real estate groups.

"Firms only tend to do these large briefings every now and then when they have a lot of vacancies," said one recruiter who attended the event. CC is understood to have last held a summit of this size in 2007.

"My impression is that the firm seems to be reacting to replace losses in the four practices," added the recruiter. "It is keen to sell working for the firm as somewhere that will open a lot of doors for lawyers if mentioned on their CVs."

London managing partner David Bickerton led the summit. Real estate finance partner Jane Cheong Tung Sing, corporate partner David Pearson, debt capital markets partner Stewart Dunlop and real estate partner Alis Pay all gave briefings on their respective practices.

It is thought that the firm is keen to rebalance the four practices, which have become increasingly weighted towards more experienced associates as they move upwards without enough lawyers to replace them.

Bickerton denied the practices were "top heavy". He told Legal Week: "The recruitment is for all our transactional groups and reflects the level of instructions we are receiving.

"We are investing to attract more top legal talent to ensure we have the right people in place to do the best work for our clients both in London and across our network."

Another recruiter who attended the meeting said: "I think the firm chose to do this now because firms have gotten much more competitive, since there is greater need for more associates now that the corporate and financial markets are picking up.

"Generally law firms tend to be short-sighted when it comes to recruitment plans – not much investment was made in junior lawyer levels after shedding a lot of mainstream corporate work during the recession.

"By holding this briefing the firm is ensuring more buy-in with recruiters as well as making sure they have more information to feed off of when speaking with associates."

Other firms reacting to increased demand for associates in recent months include magic circle peer Linklaters, which turned to the Australian market in March to source associates for the office. It sent partners to Sydney and Melbourne to conduct a series of interviews with prospective candidates.