GLOBAL warming is not only melting the polar ice-caps, it's also heating up unprecedented opportunities for smart young graduates to fast-track their way to a partnership.
Firms of every size are reaching out to graduates with knowledge about climate-change issues as Australians prepare for the national carbon trading scheme, scheduled to be introduced in 2010, and the torrent of activity that will follow - including litigation, due diligence, compliance and corporate manoeuvrings.
The resources boom also requires platoons of highly skilled practitioners, according to HR directors and head-hunters who see openings in a variety of sectors including property, retail, finance, e-commerce (including a plethora of web-based activities), franchising, the constantly changing tax regime, and the global movement of money.
Expertise in the related fields of climate change and environmental and regulatory law is therefore keenly sought by firms which, as recruiter Lisa Gazis puts it, are "reflecting the needs of society and the dynamics of the market".
Gazis sees climate change as an area where recruits have added opportunities to "differentiate themselves from the others" in terms of technical skills, leadership, good networking and an ability to developing businesses inwhat remains an embryonic sector.
What society's responses will be to the myriad environmental challenges are as yet unknown, and the legal system will be at the forefront of formulating the new frameworks we'll have to live by.
This presents ever wider opportunities for fast-tracking into partnerships, and the scene in the Australian capitals may resemble that of London where, according to Sydney Law School dean Gillian Triggs, "lawyers have barely hit the tarmac before they've found a job".
Triggs, whose previous job was as director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law at Russell Square, believes specialisation in nascent enterprises is a surefire way to advancement.
As the nation responds to climate change, law firms large and small will need people with expertise on such matters as industries seeking exemptions, definition of terms, negotiations between companies and instrumentalities, and issues relating to new and constantly evolving realities. Lawyers will soon have to deal with concepts like "load-based licensing", "tradeable units" and "verification of voluntary carbon offset products and credits".
A corollary of environmental challenges is Western Australia's resources boom, which has fuelled "heaps of opportunities for rapid advancement for smart commercial lawyers", according to Veronica Jumeaux, a senior partner at middle-sized Perth firm Downings Legal, who says some senior associates hired in key areas can gain a partnership within 12 months.
More typically, she says, a law graduate who enters the Perth fray can become an associate within five years and become a partner two years later with the right level of expertise, technical competence, ability and aptitude.
"There's a dire shortage of good people in Perth - and that includes lawyers," she says.
Jumeaux sees unlimited potential because of the knock-on effects of the resources boom, such as the many mergers and acquisitions resulting from corporate consolidation and the "many deals being done" which allow "good top-end commercial lawyers to stand out from the crowd if they show themselves to be astute and effective".
The flow-on from resources work has increased demand for lawyers in areas such as due diligence, property development and franchising - the last generating its own momentum which has created yet more opportunities for partnership fast-tracking.
The growth of partnership opportunities for those with expertise in the new rules and regulations affecting franchising has been recognised by national firm Deacons, which is increasingly active in this sector.
The lawyer in charge of franchising operations at Deacons' Melbourne office, Stephen Giles, says the firm now has 10 partners working in this area compared with only three a decade ago.
"Virtually all of this growth in partnerships has occurred organically, mainly through promotion within the ranks," says Giles.
He points to the introduction in March of a Franchising Code of Conduct - which is augmenting ACCC regulations in place since 1998 - as the driver of a spate of activity affecting 1000 franchisors and 60,000 franchisees.
"Franchising is a complicated area of the law, and those who are expert in it are much coveted," Giles says.
Those working in the sector need to be acquainted with export regulations, the Trade Practices Act, occupational health and safety issues, and the changes in industrial relations policies following the demise of Australian Workplace Agreements.
They also need to be able to help float businesses. This is all on top of an ability to provide advice on leases and how to sell a business.
Giles believes the need for franchise-savvy lawyers will continue to grow, continuing a steady expansion over the past 15 years.
The Franchise Council of Australia last year said the industry was generating $128 billion each year and was "the unsung powerhouse of small business".
As part of this growth, Giles sees an additional need for lawyers to have a "specialty within a specialty" - being able to focus on international trade.
Amid the need for specialist and highly tuned practitioners to service fledgling sectors, a note of caution has been delivered by Freehills' HR director, Gareth Bennett. He says it now takes longer to gain a partnership than a decade ago because of the "more rigorous" demands and expectations of a higher profile before a partnership is granted.
"There's a greater need to be an ideas person and to be strategic, and anyone striving for a partnership needs to demonstrate flexibility, must know how to build a business case and be conversant with new areas of the law," Bennett says.
Freehills has appointed eight new partners in the past year and they cover a wide spread across a range of the disciplines, says Bennett. They are generally found in areas where the market is growing and where opportunities exist to expand market share.
"Today's partners must show best-practice capabilities, innovation in their work and leadership in such growing areas as infrastructure," Bennett says.
But above all, carbon trading will be the big-ticket item over the next decades, especially as, according to Deacons' Stephen Giles, "right now very few people know much about it yet it's about to become all-pervasive. Right now it's underdeveloped, but for not much longer."