The most employable solicitor at the moment is probably a pensions lawyer with a sound commercial instinct and two to five years' experience, according to legal recruitment specialists across the country.This demand has built up over the last ten years as more and more pensions lawyers have been called upon to disentangle the scandals about mis-selling of pensions and the regulatory fall-out from the case of the Mirror Group pensioners.

More recently, the demand has been fuelled by the new Pensions Act and a booming pensions market.Nick Lees, of Manchester-based legal recruitment consultants Anakin Seal, says there is a tremendous interest in pensions lawyers.

'Work is outstripping the supply of specialists,' he says.

'They are gold dust, firms would pay whatever it takes to get one.'The deputy manager of the London office of recruitment consultants Daniels Bates, Alison Wright, says that there are 30 or 40 pensions jobs on offer in and around the capital alone.

But, as the economy continues to grow, albeit spasmodically, corporate lawyers are also highly prized.Andrew Lee, a director of north-west-based recruitment consultants Actis, which serves over 2000 law firms from Oxford to Scotland, says: 'In the last six months there has been a huge upturn in corporate activity.

In Manchester, for example, there have been 25 seriously good corporate recruitment opportunities from law firms, especially in the two to five-year experience bracket.'Mr Lee says that in his catchment area banking lawyers and corporate finance lawyers, especially those with management buy-out experience, will find it relatively easy to get good jobs.'A difficult area to source is a good commercial lawyer who is experienced at drafting a wide range of contracts and documentation and commercial agreements,' says Mr Lee.

He believes that while many lawyers are trained to be specialists there is still a need for those who can perform a 'general commercial role which crops up very frequently'.Peter Manners, of Manchester-based recruitment consultants the Peter Manners Partnership, is advertising for company and commercial lawyers.

He identifies employment, property development and IP lawyers as being in demand.

But he sounds a note of caution: 'The amount of response to our advertising in the last two months has been appalling.

There are a lot of people who lack the entrepreneurial spirit.

Those with good jobs are sticking with them.'The growth of the government's private finance initiative (PFI) programme means that lawyers with just a little experience in the area will find they have a lot to offer firms building this kind of niche practice.In Scotland, where the PFI programme is much more developed, Actis is helping to recruit lawyers from across the border in England.

Mr Lee says that some of the big Edinburgh and Glasgow firms are 'very interested' in English PFI lawyers.

'In England PFI is slightly more theoretical, whereas in Scotland it is more developed,' says Mr Lee.

'For example they have just completed the Skye bridge under PFI.'The PFI lawyer is still very much a generalist but more likely to come from a banking, corporate or property background, he says.

'There is no blueprint for a PFI lawyer and in Scotland it is one area where English solicitors don't need to have a Scottish qualification,' he adds.More surprisingly in the south east there is a growing demand for criminal advocates.

Patrick Alford of Tunbridge Wells-based recruitment consultants Alford & Bishop believes this is because of the fall-off in legal aid rates for matrimonial and family work and the failure of the residential property market.

'This demand is particularly large for those eligible for duty solicitor schemes,' he says.Firms are also beginning to look for solicitor advocates and the larger south-east firms are also looking for professional indemnity lawyers, including those experienced in handling work arising from cases involving negligent solicitors, says Mr Alford.

'I think people are more willing to litigate,' he adds.

'Some of it is a hangover from the late 1980s and the collapse in property values so that lenders are now trying to claw back money from bad advice given at that time.'Lawyers with insurance litigation experience are also being sought.

Mr Alford explains: 'Some firms have grown quite rapidly in areas like uninsured loss recovery and motor claims where they use large numbers of legal executives managed by a single solicitor using computers.' This trend is being driven by the insurance institutions, he says.Whatever the discipline the preferred level of experience for recruits always seems to be between two and five years.

Mr Lee describes this as 'the magic figure'.

Such is the demand for places that recently qualified lawyers are being dismissed before the interview stage.

Ms Wright says: 'Academic qualifications are very important, more and more firms won't even look at a 2:2, irrespective of where you are from.'Ms Wright believes that five-year-qualified lawyers might even be too senior.

She says that the attraction of taking on a lawyer with two to four years' experience is that they are 'cheap, present no threat, and if they are any good then the firm can make them up'.Mr Lees believes lawyers with two to five years' experience arrive at firms 'hitting the ground running'.

He adds: 'They have lots of energy without much training being required.'But today there is a much greater need for solicitors to have commercial awareness, something that young solicitors have to acquire by experience.

Nevertheless a young, fairly inexperienced solicitor with an ability to get on with clients can still compete with older lawyers.

'Personality can make up for a lack of experience,' says Mr Lees.