7 Paralegal Resume Examples & Writing Tips for 2024

Copy-&-Paste Paralegal Resume Template

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Paralegal Resume Template (Text Format)

FIRST AND LAST NAME

Email: your.email@email.com

Phone: (123) 456-7891

Address: Street, City, State

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yourprofile

Resume Objective

Dedicated paralegal with [number] years of experience. Seeking to leverage my experience in [relevant legal abilities] to fill the [Job Title] position. Hold a [degree/diploma/certification] in [Degree/Diploma/Certification Title]. Skilled at [2–3 relevant skills]. A [adjective #1] and [adjective #2] worker aiming to contribute to the success of [NGO/Law Firm Name].

Education

Degree Name / MajorUniversity, City, State | Graduation Month, Year

• GPA: 3.X/4.0 (optional)
• Latin honors (if applicable)

Professional Experience

Current Job Title (e.g., Corporate Paralegal)NGO/Law Firm Name, City, State | Month 20XX–Present

• Include a bulleted list of your achievements as a corporate law paralegal
• Start each bullet point with an action verb (like “develop” or “manage”) to grab attention
• Use the present tense for your current paralegal role, unless describing a completed project or initiative
• Use hard numbers when possible to quantify your accomplishments as a paralegal
• Mention how you’ve used some of the legal skills listed in your skills section to demonstrate your mastery of these abilities

Previous Job Title (e.g., Bankruptcy Paralegal)NGO/Law Firm Name, City, State | Month 20XX–Month 20XX

• List relevant accomplishments from your previous role as a bankruptcy paralegal
• Assuming you’re no longer working in this paralegal role, use past tense verbs to describe your work
• Include 3–6 bullet points for each paralegal role, both your current one and previous ones
• Skip the pronoun “I” and begin directly with a verb
• Although you’ll usually list work experience, feel free to include internships relevant to the legal field, as well as any volunteer work and extracurricular activities if you lack formal work experience

Skills

• List skills and certifications relevant to the paralegal job you’re applying for
• Look at the job description for ideas of the skills the employer wants and that are common in the legal field
• Emphasize law-specific hard skills and technical skills in this section
• Be as specific as possible by including names of tools, equipment, and software you’ve mastered that are used in the legal field

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You may be seeking your first paralegal role or be ready for a supervising role in a larger law firm. No matter your situation, you’ll find paralegal resume samples by experience level below.

Entry-level paralegal resume

Interning at a law firm can be competitive, so it’s important to have a standout entry-level paralegal resume (i.e., an internship resume) such as this one:

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Entry-level paralegal resume highlights

• Volunteer work: This applicant includes voluntary work on their resume to show that they’ve performed duties similar to the ones they’d likely perform during their internship such as drafting legal documents.
• Hobbies and interests: If you include a hobbies and interests section on your resume, ensure your hobbies have a connection to the paralegal internship you want. For example, reading legal thrillers gives this applicant some insight into law as it’s practiced, while chess playing shows they can strategize — a vital skill in the legal profession.

Senior paralegal resume

As a senior paralegal, you’ll often take on more important cases or supervise junior paralegals. Look at this senior IP/corporate paralegal resume example to see how to show you can handle these responsibilities:

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Senior paralegal resume highlights

• Company/role descriptions: This applicant describes their current and former law firms and their responsibilities there, which helps employers see whether their own law firm and the job they’re hiring are similar. If they are, it indicates the applicant can easily transition to the advertised role.
• Relevant degree: If you completed a law-related degree (like B.S. Legal Studies in this example), you can add this degree to your resume. You won’t need to highlight any relevant coursework since your major is completely related to law, unless you want to show that you have knowledge of a particular field of law.

No matter your legal field, we have paralegal resume samples for you to learn from.

Immigration paralegal resume

If you specialize in immigration law, you should make a resume that draws on ideas from this sample:

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Immigration paralegal resume highlight

• Metrics: This candidate stands out from other applicants by including numbers, like preparing 47 pieces of paperwork per week. Doing this shows the hiring manager what this paralegal is capable of producing on a weekly basis.

Litigation paralegal resume

Here’s a litigation paralegal resume example for your reference:

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Litigation paralegal resume highlight

• Specific software: If you’ve mastered specific software, list it among your resume skills to ensure hiring managers know you can use it. It’s best to see whether the job description specifies what software the law firm or NGO uses.

Personal injury paralegal resume

If you aspire to work for a law firm that handles personal injury claims, get inspiration for your resume from this example:

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Personal injury paralegal resume highlight

• Concise but impactful summary: This paralegal’s resume summary is short but effectively packs achievements, skills, and years of experience into just four sentences. It also gives a good insight into their personality (for example, they’re collaborative and have good people skills).

Real estate paralegal resume

To become a real estate paralegal, you’ll need to showcase your knowledge of real estate law and ability to support lawyers in this field. Show you’re able to do that with a resume like this one:

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Real estate paralegal resume highlight

• Good government relations: This candidate highlights several examples of how they’re effective at liaising with government officials — a vital skill for real estate professionals. For example, they’ve managed to obtain special approvals and ordinances.

Average paralegal salaries in the US

The following table includes information from O*NET Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. The data is presented based on the top states in the USA.

How to write a paralegal resume

To become a paralegal, you’ll need to impress the partners at the law firm you’re applying to or the hiring managers at a nonprofit or nongovernmental organization. Here are some tips on how to do just that.

1. Start with a compelling introduction

A resume summary is the standard beginning to a resume. Three to five sentences long, a good resume summary highlights your career achievements, key skills, and educational background in a way that makes employers want to keep reading your resume.

If you’re unsure how to create such a resume summary, look to these three examples for inspiration. You can copy and paste them by clicking the button and then tailor the information to your own situation:

2. Emphasize paralegal resume hard skills

As a paralegal, there are a number of hard skills that law firms are looking for that indicate you’re experienced at supporting lawyers in their work.

Here are 15 hard skills that are considered must-haves for paralegals regardless of your field of law:

1. Legal research (LexisNexis, Westlaw)
2. Document management (iManage, NetDocuments)
3. Drafting legal documents
4. E-Discovery (Relativity, Logikcull)
5. Litigation support
6. Case management (Clio, MyCase)
7. Client communication
8. Legal compliance
9. Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
10. Timekeeping and billing (Timeslips, Bill4Time)
11. Contract review and negotiation
12. Legal software (PracticePanther)
13. Court filing procedures (PACER, CM/ECF)
14. Proofreading and editing
15. Notary public

3. Write numbers-based bullet points

To demonstrate that you’re an accomplished paralegal, add numbers to each of your bullet points. This proves to employers that you have concrete achievements to your name, making it more likely that they’ll hire you, especially as many other candidates don’t quantify their resume achievements.

Here are 7 good numbers-based bullet points for a paralegal resume (with numbers highlighted):

4. Highlight your educational background

Paralegals don’t necessarily need a law degree; however, you should still highlight any legal training you have even if you studied a non-law subject.

For example, if you studied PoliSci, consider adding a relevant coursework field to your education section and listing any classes related to law.

For example, political science programs often include classes such as American Constitutional Law, American Civil Liberties, and International Law, so you could add these to your education section.

Here’s an example of a thorough education section for someone who didn’t study law:

You can also add paralegal certifications to your education section. Here are 5 nationally recognized paralegal certifications:

1. Certified Paralegal (CP) / Certified Legal Assistant (CLA) – NALA
2. Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP) – NALA
3. Professional Paralegal (PP) – NALS
4. Registered Paralegal (RP) – NFPA
5. CORE Registered Paralegal (CRP) – NFPA

And here are 5 certifications recognized by the 4 largest states in the union, as well as Delaware, a famously corporation-friendly state where almost two-thirds of Fortune 500 corporations and 80% of IPOs are registered:

1. New York: New York Certified Paralegal (NYCP) – New York City Paralegal Association (NYCPA)
2. California: California Advanced Specialist Paralegal (CASP) – California Alliance of Paralegal Associations (CAPA)
3. Texas: Texas Board of Legal Specialization (TBLS) – Paralegal Certification
4. Florida: Florida Registered Paralegal (FRP) – The Florida Bar
5. Delaware: Delaware Certified Paralegal (DCP) with a focus on Corporate Law – Delaware Paralegal Association (DPA)

Resume examples for different industries

Not sure what your resume should look like? The best way to learn is by taking inspiration from resume examples written by other candidates in your industry.

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