Lawyer Resume Sample

Jobs in the law sector offers high salaries and a broad range of career paths in exchange for confident oral communication skills and exceptional research abilities.

Working as a lawyer is demanding but the rewards are significant, with those employed by private firms and corporate environments earning a median wage of $119,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In today’s changing legal job market, fierce competition exists on all rungs of the career ladder. To compete with other  candidates, it’s critical for your resume to make an impact.

These professionally written tips for constructing a lawyer resume are proven to help candidates secure the most prestigious positions at top firms and corporations.

Tip #1: Place Your Qualifications Front and Center

After your name and contact details, the focal point of your resume should be your certification to practice law in that state and your educational background.

Graduates typically lead with their new qualifications, whereas professional lawyers with notable achievements often focus on their experience.

Our candidate uses an elegant modern resume template with two columns to draw attention to her education as well as experience, while also placing her admission to the New York State Bar in a prime position.

When describing education on a lawyer resume, sometimes less is more; that is, unlike other industries where qualifications require explanation, any hiring manager will know immediately what a J.D. from a top law school represents. It’s unnecessary to go into detail.

If you’re a recent law school graduate with an unrelated subject as your undergraduate degree, don’t worry if this fact is highlighted. Many top law schools encourage students to study anything they find stimulating at the undergraduate level, and employers value a diverse background.

Tip #2: Write a Succinct but Effective Introduction

In the high-pressure legal world, a single written mistake can be incredibly costly. This applies to your resume as much as it does to any professional document.

Therefore, your resume introduction—the first thing the hiring manager will read—must be immaculate when you’re applying to prominent firms or large corporations.

Many candidates fail to clear this initial hurdle because they don’t know how to correctly start a resume. If you’re also stuck here, no problem. There are four introduction formats that maximize your chance of being hired:

• Professional summary (or “resume summary”)
• Summary of qualifications (or “qualifications summary”)
• Resume objective (or “career objective”)
• Resume profile (or “professional profile”)  

Our candidate chose the professional profile, which is a paragraph or bullet point list that provides a detailed description of your expertise and achievements.

A professional profile for a lawyer consists of four points:

• Years of experience
• Area of specialty
• Relevant qualifications
• Career achievements

This is how each point looks highlighted on our candidate’s resume:

Results-driven corporate lawyer with 10+ years of experience ensuring the legality of commercial transactions. Adept at drafting and reviewing policies. 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.

Professional profiles can be written as a paragraph or bullet point list. In under 50 words, our candidate demonstrates her primary strengths and makes a solid case for what she can offer her potential employer.

Lawyer Resume Objective

If you’re targeting a specific position, you may wish to write a resume objective. Here’s how it would look for our candidate:

Results-driven corporate lawyer with 10+ years of experience counseling clients, ensuring the legality of commercial transactions, and drafting policies. Possess a J.D. from Duke Law School and am a member of the New York State Bar in good standing. Looking to leverage my knowledge and experience into a role as chief legal officer at your company.

This format is also helpful for newer graduates with less experience looking to get their foot in the door.

Tip #3: Refine Your Experience Section

Although prominently displaying your education and writing a compelling introduction are crucial, the experience section will always be the core of your resume.

One way to elevate your experience bullet points is to refine the language you use when highlighting relevant responsibilities and achievements.

To accomplish this, try beginning your bullet points with effective action verbs. Doing so has two major benefits:

• It reinforces that you’re proactive rather than reactive – an indispensable trait for a lawyer
• It maximizes your chance of beating applicant tracking systems that law firms use to scan resumes for keywords

You can also sharpen your experience bullets further by incorporating quantifiable results. Many candidates are so confident in their general accomplishments that they neglect to actually measure them.

Differentiating your application in a positive way is often as simple as submitting an achievement-oriented resume that utilizes numbers, percentages, and time frames.

Here is an example from our lawyer resume template:

Action verb + responsibility + quantifiable point = exemplary experience bullet

These are some of the other action verbs our candidate uses:  

define / develop / advise / negotiate /  achieve / draft / review / implement / reduce / advise / conduct / research / review / ensure / draft / monitor

As you’re using this process to describe your experience, remember to not get carried away with the length of your application. A single page is ample for a lawyer resume. However, if you have considerable experience or academic publications, two pages is acceptable.

Final Thoughts

If you employ these tips, your lawyer resume should be in top shape. To enhance the content with an equally authoritative design, choose from our huge collection of downloadable resume templates.

Alternatively, to be certain of checking all the right boxes, our free and recently updated resume builder will help you create a comprehensive, personalized resume in a matter of minutes.