Lawyer Resume

Working as a lawyer can be demanding, requiring long work hours and strict entry requirements.

Law firms will expect you to display your relevant qualifications, excellent written and oral communication skills, and exceptional research abilities on your resume if you want to be called in for an interview.

Check out our four professional lawyer resume tips for writing a resume that’ll be sure to grab the attention of hiring managers at top law firms and corporations.

1. Clearly display your education and credentials

As a lawyer, you’ll need to display your education section and your certification to practice law in the state(s) you’re applying to work in prominently on your resume.

No matter how much work experience you have listed on your resume, law firms will still want to see that you can legally practice law in the state where the job is located.

To make this information easy for firms to find, list your bar admissions and educational history at the top of your resume, right before your work experience section.

Here’s an example of how to list your bar admission and education on your lawyer resume:

When listing a degree on your resume, it’s unnecessary to go into great detail. For example, any hiring manager will know immediately what a J.D. from a top law school represents. There’s no need to take up valuable space going into greater depth about what the degree is.

Additionally, If you’re a recent law school graduate with an unrelated subject as your undergraduate degree, don’t worry. Law schools encourage students to study anything they find engaging at the undergraduate level, and law firms value a diverse background.

2. Include a well-written resume introduction

In the high-pressure legal world, a single written mistake can be incredibly costly. You’ll need to bring the same caution you take when preparing legal documents to writing your attorney resume.

First, knowing how to start a resume with a well-written resume introduction is incredibly important for a lawyer to be able to appeal to hiring managers when applying to prominent firms or large corporations.

Most law candidates will either write a resume summary or resume objective.

The main difference between the two will be your length of experience. If you’re already a professional attorney with several years of practicing law, write a resume summary that highlights these four points:

• years of experience
• area of specialty
• relevant qualifications
• career achievements

Here’s an example of a well-written resume summary for an attorney:

Results-driven corporate lawyer with 8+ years of experience ensuring the legality of commercial transactions. Adept at drafting and reviewing policies, and client negotiation. Possess a J.D. from Duke Law School and am a member of the New York State Bar in good standing. Achieved advantageous settlements in 90% of cases.

On the other hand, if you’re a new or junior lawyer preparing an entry-level attorney resume, it’s best to write a resume objective.

In a resume objective, you’ll still want to highlight your qualifications and relevant experience (if you have any), but you’ll also need to convey to the hiring manager that you’ll help the firm achieve its goals.

Because you have less experience, you’re essentially telling the company that you’re a motivated and driven junior attorney, ready to exceed in an entry-level position.

Here’s an example of a well-written resume objective for an entry-level attorney:

Motivated and driven attorney with an excellent academic record, and strongly adept at conducting legal research. Have participated in 4 trial practices, reaching an advantageous settlement in 3 of the cases. Possess a J.D. from Duke Law School and am a member of the New York State Bar in good standing. Seeking to leverage my academic record and maintain a high level of billable hours for Bar Jones Law Firm.

3. Add numbers and action verbs to your legal experience

Although prominently displaying your bar admission and writing a compelling introduction is crucial, your experience practicing law will always be the core of your resume.

The best way to ensure that your law experience looks impressive to the firm’s hiring manager is to add actions verbs and hard numbers to your bullet points when detailing your work experience.

First, using effective action verbs will help portray you as a proactive lawyer rather than a reactive one. Using action verbs also makes your work experience section more engaging for the hiring manager to read, as opposed to the traditional laundry list of previous duties and responsibilities.

Here’s an example of 16 useful action verbs for lawyers to include on their resumes:

Next, implementing hard numbers into your law experience will give the hiring manager a clear understanding of how you’ve excelled thus far in your career as an attorney.

Consider the following six points when detailing your accomplishments as a lawyer:

• How many clients have you served? (especially in high-profile cases)
• The number of cases you’ve taken (from concept to trail, or even to appeal)
• How many mediations have you participated in, and what was the settlement rate?
• How many billing hours do you maintain annually?
• What is your client satisfaction rate?

Here is an example of how to add hard numbers and actions verbs on your lawyer resume:

4. Prominently feature your legal skills on your resume

Finally, you’ll need to ensure that you add your legal skills to your attorney resume. Listing skills on your resume is important for any profession, but it’s essential for lawyers because hiring managers will want to know where your specific expertise is in practicing law.

Many types of lawyers (such as corporate, immigration, or criminal) have unique hard and soft skills because of their different experiences in and out of the courtroom.

Therefore, it’s important to ensure that you match your skills with the job description when applying for an attorney position at a law firm.

Here are 12 important hard skills for lawyers:

• knowledge of laws and legal procedures
• legal research
• client management
• negotiation & settlement
• litigation strategy & management
• mediation
• corporate law
• criminal law
• trial preparation
• documentation
• client advocacy & satisfaction
• discovery

Soft skills are also equally crucial for lawyers since their jobs require dealing with clients. You’ll need great interpersonal skills and time management to handle your workload properly and achieve a high level of client satisfaction.

Here are seven soft skills for your attorney resume:

• oral and written communication
• time management
• organizational skills
• analytical skills
• empathy
• adaptability
• persuasive speech & writing