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• The Legal Resume

The Legal Resume

Keep your resume out of the trash can by paying attention to detail.

General format
Appearance
First section (personal information)
Second section (education)
Third section (experience)
Sample resumes
Active verbs for resumes

A resume introduces you to a potential employer. A good resume is concise and accurate. It should interest and inform the employer concerning your abilities and skills. Employers typically spend one minute or less looking at your resume. For this reason, you should give serious effort and time to developing it.

General format

The resume generally has three sections: personal information, education, and experience. Personal information includes your name, usually in a bolder and larger font than other entries, your current address, a reliable phone number, and your e-mail address. The education section lists schools and any corresponding activities and awards. The experience section lists present and previous employers and details about your responsibilities and duties. It is customary to list all entries in reverse chronological order (most recent first).

The general rule is to limit the resume to one page. You may list references on a second page, but it is generally understood that they are available upon request. Some students – particularly mature students with considerable pre-law experience – often feel that it is necessary to use two pages. However, summarize non-legal experience briefly so that it accurately reflects your experience but does not consume too much of your resume. If you feel that the information is pertinent to the employment opportunity, then include it, but evaluate your information under other headings to identify items that can be omitted or condensed. You don’t want to clutter your resume with nonessential information. You do want to emphasize strengths and accomplishments as they relate to your employment goal.

Appearance

Your resume should be easy to read or scan along the left-hand margin and free of typos. Your resume and cover letter should be on matching stationery, preferably white or off-white 100 percent cotton bond paper.

While margins may vary to accommodate individual situations, normally a resume’s margins will be about 1 inch on the left and right and between 0.6 and 1.2 inches on the top and bottom. Strive for consistency and centering throughout your resume in terms of spacing within the text and the white space at the borders. Tabs should also be used consistently.

Keep the same font style throughout your resume. Choose a conservative, easy-to-read font that converts smoothly to the PDF format and e-mails as text well. Font size should be 12 for the body of your resume and a larger font – at least two points – for your name or a major sub-heading. Using a 14 or larger font bolded for your name and a half point or a point smaller font for the address and phone information allows the name to be the focal point of your personal information.

Only use bold-face print to emphasize your name, institution, and employment organization. Use italics only to designate job titles and leadership positions within organizations. Keep underlining to a minimum and use it primarily to separate various sections of your resume or to underline information that is properly underlined in accordance with punctuation guidelines.

First section (personal information)

The name is almost always centered in bold at the top margin (although placing it on the left margin at the top is another option). Your address should be included, as well as a reliable phone number. These entries are typically centered underneath the name and are generally two points smaller than the name. Make sure your email address does not include unprofessional words. If you have several names, only include the name that you are known by.

Do not include a job or employment objective section. Your career objectives and plans should be addressed in a cover letter.

Second section (education)

The education section typically precedes the experience section unless you have been out of law school for several years and have significant work experience that is relevant to the job you are seeking. In this part of your resume, list advanced degrees first and work back to undergraduate degrees.

Listing grade point averages and class rank on the resume is optional, but should be included if they are impressive. A high GPA is often self-evident from your honors – if you graduated cum laude for instance. If you do choose to include your grades, do so in brackets next to honors such as cum laude or next to class rank. Given that the curve at ASL is low, it is possible that you are near the top of your class with a middle-B average. You must be prepared to discuss grades in an interview since many employers will eventually ask about grades. There is a grading and curve explanation on ASL letterhead in the Career Services Office that you should bring to any interviews. Providing GPA for undergraduate or other graduate degrees is also optional but should be omitted if less than outstanding.

The entries under the education section include the name of the school (always first), the location of the school, the name of any degrees received and the year awarded or the expected date of completion, your major, and subsections setting forth honors and activities for each degree.

Use commas and semi-colons when listing activities, honors, and job responsibilities formatted in a block style, like this: "Assisted staff attorneys with grand jury indictments; investigated and evaluated cases; provided legal research." You may also use bullets.

The “honors” section should list any awards or distinctions you received, such as Dean’s List, school awards or scholarships, or Latin honors such as cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude (these are always italicized and are always lower case). Entries in this subsection are typically listed one per line.

In the “activities” section, you should indicate any student organization memberships, elected offices, or activities in which you have participated. Be selective and try to limit this information to three to five entries. You want to give the employer a clear understanding of your level of achievement and involvement but not overwhelm the employer with details of every committee you served on or every scholarship you received. Give full names of organizations rather than acronyms and add a brief explanation of activities or affiliations not easily recognized by a name or title alone.

Third section (experience)

The experience section is the most difficult to write since it provides details and descriptions of volunteer or unpaid positions along with paid positions. It is important to organize this information prior to writing your resume. Descriptions are everything. Create a vivid picture of the type of work you have done and the extent of your responsibilities.

Try not to exaggerate your responsibilities – your resume should accurately reflect your experience and accomplishments without embellishment. Details are important, and you want to accentuate those work experiences most critical to your current search. Your descriptions should be short phrases that begin with an action verb like these examples: "Synthesized legal research; Drafted pretrial argument memoranda; Interviewed prospective clients."

After you have created a detailed summary of your duties and responsibilities for each job, begin to limit your list. Think of your audience – what skills and abilities are employers looking for? Emphasize those skills and abilities.

The entry under experience should include the name of the employer in bold, the employer’s location on the same line regular type, italicized title of the position on the next line, dates worked in regular type, and the job description beginning on the third line. The description ideally should be no more than two or three lines long, arranged in a block format with the appropriate punctuation separating each description to clearly delineate the different areas of responsibility and accomplishment.

Emphasize relevant non-legal jobs as part of your professional growth. Many jobs utilize good “lawyering” skills such as research, writing, communication skills, and time management skills.

To view some sample resumes, click here.

Active verbs

Use active language to describe your experiences. For example, did you read cases in law school, or did you organize and synthesize information? A list of active verbs follows:

accelerated	accomplished	achieved
acquired	adapted	addressed
adjusted	administered	advised
aided	allocated	analyzed
applied	appointed	appraised
arbitrated	argued	arranged
articulated	assembled	assessed
assigned	assisted	audited
authorized	awarded	began
bolstered	briefed	budgeted
built	calculated	cataloged
chaired	charted	clarified
classified	closed	collected
collaborated	combined	communicated
compared	compiled	completed
composed	conducted	conserved
consolidated	constructed	consulted
contacted	controlled	convinced
coordinated	corresponded	counseled
created	critiqued	debated
decided	defined	delegated
delivered	demonstrated	designed
determined	developed	devised
directed	discovered	distributed
documented	drafted	edited
eliminated	enlarged	enlisted
ensured	established	evaluated
examined	executed	exhibited
expanded	explained	explored
facilitated	filed	followed
formulated	fostered	founded
functioned	gathered	generated
guided	handled	heightened
identified	illustrated	implemented
improved	increased	informed
inspected	initiated	instituted
instructed	interpreted	interrogated
interviewed	introduced	invented
investigated	joined	judged
launched	lectured	led
located	maintained	managed
maximized	mediated	modeled
modified	monitored	motivated
negotiated	observed	obtained
operated	ordered	organized
outlined	oversaw	participated
performed	persuaded	planned
prepared	presented	processed
procured	produced	programmed
projected	promoted	proposed
provided	purchased	pursued
questioned	reasoned	received
recommended	recorded	recruited
reduced	referred	related
rendered	reported	represented
researched	resolved	responded
retained	retrieved	revealed
reviewed	revised	rewrote
scheduled	searched	secured
selected	served	set-up
shaped	shared	solicited
solved	streamlined	strengthened
structured	studied	submitted
summarized	supervised	supplied
supported	surveyed	talked
targeted	taught	tested
tracked	trained	transformed
translated	traveled	tutored
uncovered	updated	utilized
worked	wrote