How to write a lawyer’s resume? Tips and Samples

How to write a lawyer’s resume? Tips and Samples

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If you’re applying to a top-tier law firm like Bernard Law Group Seattle, you have to make your resume as professional-looking and polished as possible. A lawyer’s resume should include several thematic blocks. First, fill in all the fields in the “Personal Information” section (full name, date of birth, city of residence, etc.). The next step is to describe your work experience. It’s the section employers are most interested in. Include your starting and ending dates, job title, background information about the employing company, and a list of your main responsibilities and accomplishments. For example, a lawyer’s responsibilities can be described in the resume using the phrases below:

– Represented the company in arbitration courts, courts of general jurisdiction, and magistrate’s courts in civil and administrative cases. Worked on more than 100 cases, 80% of which the verdict was in favor of the company.

– Conducted claims activities: prepared and sent over 20 claims per month to the court. More than 60% of all conflicts were settled out of court.

– Approved and performed expert review of agreements: lease, construction, purchase and sale, insurance, and others (more than 20 agreements per month).

– Approved local normative acts: orders, instructions (more than 10 per month).

– Held consulting seminars and webinars for employees of various company departments.

If you have many years of legal experience, you don’t have to go into too many details. It’s enough to touch upon your work in 3-4 previous places (using a separate block for each) or about the experience in the last 10 years.

List your main competencies and emphasize your professionalism once again in the “Key Skills” block. 

The most significant of them are:

  •  Experience in representing interests in arbitration court and court of general jurisdiction;
  •  Ability to competently prepare legal and procedural documents;
  •  Knowledge of commercial, contractual, corporate, and labor law;
  • Practical skills of transaction support;
  •  Knowledge of arbitration and civil procedure;
  •  Experience in preparing constituent documents;
  •  Work experience with programs “Consultant Plus,” “1C”;
  •  Experience using the “E-Guard” services and “Arbitration Case Files.”

Be precise and specific about your professional successes in the “Achievements” section. For clarity, use numbers, for example: “In 2015, I represented the company 10 times in arbitration court – all 10 court decisions were in favor of the company.

Special mention :

Special mention should be made of the “Additional Information” field. Here you can specify the information that is important for the desired position but not included in the previous sections. A good decision is to give an example of how your personal qualities help you in your work: “I’m a team player and very result-driven, so I’m most effective in negotiations. Among the qualities vital for a lawyer are responsibility, attentiveness, stress tolerance, analytical thinking, diligence, determination, and perseverance. Include in your resume all or any of them you possess.

Additional Information:

Stress your attentiveness and logical thinking. For example, “Analytical thinking and attention to detail allow me to work effectively with documentation, immediately identifying fragments that need to be corrected.”