The Career Brief
The Legal Resume, Part 1: The Basics
Of course, we know that even the most straightforward things have minutiae, unspoken norms, and multiple approaches. In the context of resume writing, this can induce analysis paralysis as soon as you open a blank document. Not to mention, writing a resume for the legal world is an additional nuance with its own expectations.
Some of the information found online about creating resumes can be contradictory, vague, or inapplicable to the legal industry. Thankfully, the Career Services office is here to help. In this two-part article, you’ll find advice for everything you need to know to create a strong legal resume - from the basics on what to include to the Top 10 Tips.
What to Include and How to Include It
Let’s begin with an overview of categories a legal resume should include: a header, education, experience, community involvement, languages/special skills, and interests. Information within these categories should be listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent experience first and working backwards.
Header: The header of a resume should include your name and contact information - email address and phone number are standard, along with your city and state (no need to include your full address, and we don’t recommend it for privacy/safety). You may also include a hyperlink with your LinkedIn profile URL. Make sure your header stands out from the rest of your resume.
You should use the same header on all of your application materials including your cover letter, references, and any cover sheets.
Education: The education section of your resume should list your present or most recent degree first, followed by prior degrees. Be sure to include the school, the program you are in, projected/actual graduation month and year, and the city and state of the school. You may include any school-related activities, honors, or awards you’ve received. Don’t forget to mention your moot court competitions, law review, and leadership roles.
You may also include your GPA and class rank if it is impressive. Typically, this is the top-third of your class for law school. If listing cum laude on a resume, keep it all lowercase and in italics, listed after your degree: Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude.
Some quick tips for Lewis & Clark Law School students and graduates:
- Lewis & Clark Law School uses an “&” rather than “and” in its proper title.
- List your law degree from Lewis & Clark as, “Juris Doctor” – and not a Juris Doctorate, Doctor of Law, or Doctor of Jurisprudence.
- Indicate you are a law student as, “Juris Doctor Candidate, May 2028.”
Small details like this are important - remember, all of your application materials are also writing samples demonstrating your care and attention to detail.
The Education section will usually be at the top of your resume if you are a current student or a recent graduate, but you may consider putting your Experience section first if you have significant relevant experience that outshines your educational activities.
Experience: Just like listing your education, your current or most recent experience should be listed first. Include your job title, the name and location (city, state) of the employer, and dates worked with the month and year (i.e., June 2024 - September 2024).
When writing about your experience, the goal is to describe the work you did in a way that concisely highlights your accomplishments and skills that will transfer to a legal career, such as writing, research, analysis, presentation, leadership, and client interaction. Using a bullet point format is strongly recommended to keep your resume easy to read.
You can include unpaid as well as paid experience in this section, including internships, externships, and long-term volunteer service. Experience is experience. Your future employer cares about whether you have the skills needed to do your next job, not about whether you were paid for gaining those skills in prior roles. Including all your experience in a single section keeps your resume concise and prevents it from being disjointed or longer than necessary.
Community Involvement: As with your experience, list your community involvement in reverse chronological order; include the position you held, the name of the organization you volunteered for, dates, location, as well as a brief description of the work performed. As your experience grows, you may decide to shrink the descriptions of your community involvement to save space.
Including your engagement is valuable because it indicates you have leadership qualities, business development abilities, a vested interest in bettering your community, and clues an employer into your interests and passions. Make a point to showcase the tasks you did that highlight these things.
Languages/Special Skills: Language skills are always worth putting on a resume; you’d be surprised by the demand for it! Be sure to list the language(s) you speak as well as your proficiency level.
As far as special skills, it is important to note that this does not mean following the trend in non-legal resumes to include a bullet point list of soft and technical skills like “teambuilding” or “time management,” or basic skills like “Microsoft Office” or “Zoom.” While these are good skills to possess, they are largely presumed for law students and graduates and are seen by legal employer as fluff. Describe them in your tasks instead. The skills employers are interested in for a special skills section are more concrete like website design or certifications.
Interests: This category is optional but may be helpful to include under some circumstances. For example, if you have limited experience to list, sharing the things you are interested in can be a great way to fill out your resume while adding a little of your personality. If you happen to know that the employer has a shared interest with you, it can certainly be worth including on your resume. For example, if you learn your potential employer enjoys the symphony, you may want to highlight that you are a concert violinist.
Even if you don’t know what this employer may be interested in, sharing your own interests offers a peek into who you are as a person and may help you to stand out. Keep in mind that if you choose to include your interests, it is more powerful to include activities that demonstrate dedication, high skill, determination, and uniqueness. Something average such as going on day hikes once in a while doesn’t imply dedication or high skill the same way as listing that you hiked the Pacific Crest Trail or summitted Mt. Hood.
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It is more important than ever to have a strong resume that helps you stand out while still conforming to the expectations of legal employers. To learn more about how to effectively fill in these sections started above, stay tuned for the next installment: The Legal Resume, Top 10 Tips for Creating a Powerful Legal Resume - Part 2 will discuss the following tips:
- Keep it Concise
- Use Clear and simple Formats
- Make it Easy to Scan
- Tell a Story
- Avoid First-Person
- Use Active Verbs
- Describe Work
- Emphasize Skills
- Avoid Fluff
- Proofread