Hiring by New Jersey law firms is on a steady swing back nearly to prerecession levels, judging by the anecdotal evidence assembled in this, our annual new-associates magazine.

This year’s 290 new additions are a robust 14.6 percent more than last year’s 253. The increase was smaller than last year’s 24 percent, but only because 2010 was a period of recovery after two years of precipitous decline. From 2007 to 2009, associate hiring was cut by half — from 406 to 204.