Clifford Chance (CC) has re-opened last year’s recruitment programme in a bid to bring the number of recruits for its next two trainee intakes back to “normal” levels.

The magic circle firm usually recruits around 120 new trainees per year spread out over its August and February intakes. However, CC said that it had recruited cautiously during last year’s process as a result of the uncertain market conditions, but that it was now looking to top up the number of trainees originally taken on.