Law firms venture overseas in roughly three ways, says Erik Ramanathan of Harvard University’s Programme on the Legal Profession.

Ramanathan, Wilcox and an Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain are working to figure out the impact of black carbon on glacial loss.

As Ramanathan puts it, "it's like we have a new gorilla sitting down at the table" -and it could turn out to be a very big gorilla indeed.