Lawyer Resume Examples, Template, and Resume Tips

Lawyer Resume Examples, Template, and Resume Tips Did you watch the latest season of “Suits” and finally decided to apply for a new lawyer job?If your answer is yes, then you are in the right place! Today we will cover a topic that could help you get a lawyer job you want.In today’s business environment there is a lot of legal practice, whether it is in crime and justice area or in corporate law.Because of that, there are a lot of law schools and a lot of people decide to follow that path and become a lawyer.Along with that comes the need for more lawyer jobs.However, there are usually more lawyers than available jobs, so if you want to walk that path, you need to find a way to distinguish yourself from the competition.And right here comes the importance of a well-written professional resume because it could make all the difference to a recruiter who is tasked with finding the perfect candidate for the job.So, in order to write a perfect lawyer resume, first, we need to ask some questions that should be answered by that same r esume.Find the best way to distinguish yourself from the competitionDefine the main parts of a lawyer resumePick or make the perfect lawyer resume templateOptimize the resume sizeEvery good resume should consist of these four elements. Once you figure them out, you will easily be able to write a perfect lawyers resume.Note that resumes shouldn’t be too long since they are simply the short biography of your business and partly personal life.Therefore, you shouldn’t make your resume longer than 2 pages at max.Everything above that would make your resume look unprofessional, which is what we are trying to avoid here.Before we begin with the main guide, we will show you a couple of examples of how a perfect lawyer resume should look like.After that, we will analyze each individual part of a lawyers resume and explain how to write them, in order to make your resume look good.In the end, we will focus on some tips that could help you pass the interview and get the lawyer job you want, as well as some tips that could make your resume even better.So, are you ready to roll?For those who are, without any further due, we may begin!Corporate Associate Lawyer Resume Example Right Associate Attorney Resume Example Right Create your own resumeEXPERTS SAY YOU SHOULD SHARE THIS PERSONAL INFORMATION IN YOUR LAWYER RESUMENow that we’ve seen some functional resume samples, let’s move on to the guide which will help you to write your own lawyer resume.The very first thing you should write in your resume is, of course, some sort of personal information section, which should contain basic personal and contact information.This is done because you want to make it easier for recruiters to get a quick overview of you, such as your name, home address and contact information like phone number and email address.And since we live in the age of the internet and social media, it is common to put some information about your social media accounts.So, without any further delay, let’s talk about all of these individual things and discover the best way to include them in your resume.How to Properly Write Your Name in a Lawyer Resume?Of course, the very first information everyone tends to write in their resume is the ir name. It’s like when meeting someone.We can consider a resume to be a sort of a business letter or even better, a bit larger business ID, which allows companies to learn something about you and decide whether you could be a perfect person for the job or not.And just like with any business letter, you should open up with your name. However, since this is not a casual meeting, there are some tips to follow.Note that you should always write your full name in your resume, without using nicknames or short version of your name.That would look unprofessional and wouldn’t be good to put in a business letter. Let’s take a look at the example.James Allen RightJaime Allen WrongIncluding Profession in Your Lawyer ResumeNext to your name, you should add your current or past profession, so recruiters could see if you are experienced or not.The proper way to do this is to write your professional title right under your name, which would easily be seen by recruiters.By looking at your pre vious title, they will be able to see whether you are already an experienced individual and whether you are fit for the job they are offering.“But what if I don’t have any experience, because I just graduated?”Worry not! We got you covered on that one too!If you are a fresh graduate, who hasn’t been working during studies, then you probably don’t have a professional title to include in your lawyers resume.However, don’t let that discourage you! In this case, you should put your highest education title, such as ‘Master of Laws’ if you have acquired Master’s Degree or even a ‘Bachelor of Law’ if that has been your highest point in education so far.In case you are still finishing your bachelor’s studies, then you can simply put ‘Law Student’, so recruiters would know what to expect from your resume.The Perfect Photo to Share on Your Lawyer ResumeIn some countries, sharing a photo on your resume is pretty common, while in some others not so much, but we’ll cover it here.Even though it might not be necessary to add a photo in your resume, there is really no harm in doing it, if you do it properly.And by properly, we mean choosing the right photo to add.There are several important characteristics a resume photo should include, so let’s take a look.Photo instructionsNatural smileCombed and neat hairNaturally open eyesFor women â€" without too much makeupFor men â€" trimmed and neat beardA white or neutral environmentNice formal clothesUpright stature RightPhoto instructionsForced smileStaring or closed eyesMessed up hairFor women â€" tons of makeupFor men â€" messy beardToo colorful or environment full of peopleCasual or sport clothesSluggish stature WrongIn order for your lawyer resume photos to look professional, you should follow these simple tips we provided above.This means that you should probably avoid using random photos from your Instagram or Facebook profiles since most of them probably won’t meet the criteria.So, no rand om photos with friends, drinking on the beaches and everything else that might look a bit unprofessional, which is what you’re trying to avoid.Instead, you should take a new photo, perhaps even go to a professional photo studio if you find some that are not expensive.Yes, you might think that is a bit too much to do simply to write a resume, but remember, you want to distinguish yourself from other job applicants, and investing some time in making your resume look perfect is a good way of doing it.Shall I Add Phone Number to My Resume?Now, let’s move on to adding some contact information, so recruiters could get in touch with you if they decide to give you a chance and invite you to an interview.The most common way they tend to do it is by directly talking to you via the phone calls. Therefore, it is pretty much recommended to include your phone number in your lawyers resume.Also, even though emails are very used, they tend to bug, so it is a good idea to have several alternativ e ways to communicate with job applicants.Another thing is that, for some jobs, where it is necessary to communicate with clients, recruiters like to talk to their applicants over the phone, to evaluate their interpersonal skills a bit.Sharing Home Address â€" Yay or Nay?When it comes to writing home addresses in a resume, a lot of people are not sure whether to do it or not, so let’s answer that, shall we?Sharing your home address is usually optional in most job applications, even though it may have some benefits.First of all, some jobs are only available in certain states, so perhaps if you are not from that state, you should let the company’s office know that.They might be able to help you with finding the place to live or even pay for it if you are an expert in your area.Also, there is a question about transportation costs. If you live a bit farther from the company, then you might be given a paid bonus, which you can use to pay your transportation costs.Apart from that, lar ge companies often have their own organized transportation service for people who don’t live close to the job.Last, but not least, if recruiters know your home address, they might be willing to offer you a job position that is closer to your home, so you wouldn’t have to spend too much time in traffic.Therefore, there is really no reason not to write your home address in your resume, since it can only help you get certain benefits or even better job position.Pro Way of Writing E-Mail Address in Your Lawyer ResumeApart from a phone number, the most important contact information you should always include in your resume is, of course, your email address.Communication via emails is the most commonly used way of communication in business, between companies, between employees and employers and also between recruiters and job candidates.Apart from that, 99% of a job application is done via emails nowadays, so even if you don’t include your email address in your resume, people will st ill know what email to contact you.But, it would make things easier if you just wrote it anyway because it would reduce time recruiters would have to go through dozens of emails just to find the right one.However, you should keep in mind that not all types of emails are good to be shared in a lawyers resume, or in general in every resume.darrel.ryan@ymail.com Rightdarrel6578@ymail.com WrongAs shown in the example, you should avoid using random emails you had created for things like Netflix account and such.Instead, you should create a new email, which you will only use for things like job applications or anything else related to business.When doing so, you should use your full name, or a bit shorter version if your full name is too long, but make sure not to use funny nicknames.It would look unprofessional and could reduce your chances of getting the job you want. So, avoid using emails like the one shown in the example, where there are a lot of random numbers.When it comes to sel ecting a good email provider, the choice is yours. However, our advice is to use the most known email providers, such as Google or Yahoo.Including Your Social Media Profiles in Lawyer ResumeTruth be told, imagining a world without social media platforms is near to impossible nowadays because they have such a great impact on almost every part of life, from personal to business side.Social media started as a way to get people from around the world together on the internet, to meet each other and talk about various subjects.Over time, this concept evolved into something much bigger. Nowadays, social media platforms are not just used for socializing people and making new friendships, but they are pretty much used in business as well.Companies invest millions in making social media marketing strategies that could help them get more customers for their products and services.Because of that, sharing some of your social media accounts in your resume has become a pretty common thing.Sometime s, it is also needed to be done, depending on the job you’re applying for, such as social media marketing manager or similar.However, before you go to your social media accounts, copy the links and paste them to your resume, you should slow down and read what we advise.Simply copying your account’s links would look a bit sloppy, with all those random letters and numbers present in the links.So, before doing that, make sure to edit links a bit and remove parts that are not necessary for the browser to open your account page. Let’s see how that would look.linkedin.com/Darrell-Ryan Rightlinkedin.com/Darrell-Ryan-5x1978142 WrongAs you can see, your profile links would look more professional without these random letters and numbers, as shown above.Also, if you want to share, for instance, your Twitter or Facebook accounts, make sure to edit them so they would look more professional.So, remove some unnecessary and kind of stupid posts and photos and focus on making your profile lo ok like you are a true professional.Sharing all of these is optional, so if you don’t want to mess with your social media profiles, then don’t and simply don’t include them in your lawyers resume.However, the only really important social media account you should always share is your LinkedIn account, since it is the social media made for business people to connect to each other and companies.THE BEST WAY TO SUMMARIZE THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN YOUR LAWYER RESUMEAfter you have successfully written something about your personal and contact information in your lawyers resume, it is time to include something about your competencies, skills, and achievements.However, since that usually includes a lot of detail, even though you are trying to keep your lawyer resume as short as possible.Therefore, you should create a small section dedicated to summarizing the most relevant information about your previous jobs, education, skills, and potential personal achievements.This section shouldn’t be bigger than just a couple of short sentences, describing what kind of jobs you were on, what kind of skills you had to use to perform well on those jobs and whether you’ve had some noteworthy achievements in your business or student history.SummaryCorporate Associate with over 10 years of experience in working on numerous cases both in corporate practice and criminal area. Has extensive knowledge of the law and all law practices that are used to settle criminal cases and capable of finding loopholes that could help newly-found startups to stay on their feet and expand further. RightSummaryCorporate Associate with over 10 years of experience. WrongIf you compare two summaries from the table, you will see that even though they both state that a candidate has over 10 years of experience, the first one looks much better.This is because the summary labeled with ‘Wrong’ looks kind of generic, and you can see similar summaries in a lot of lawyers resumes.The problem with this is that they don’t tell you much about the applicant’s experience, only that he has some, which is a pretty shallow explanation.On the other hand, the summary labeled with ‘Right’ is much more detailed and it includes a lot of information about activities this person performed on different jobs.By writing a summary section like this, you will literally stand out of the crowd of generic resumes, which would make your resume look a bit more professional and increase your chance of being invited to a job interview, which is something you should always try to achieve.WRITING DOWN YOUR PREVIOUS JOBS LIKE A CHAMP!Now when your lawyer resume summary is ready, it is time to start writing the main part of your resume, which is your experience section.People often wonder how far back should you go on a resume.If you are a person with a lot of experience, it might not be possible to simply write all your previous jobs, without making the resume too long.In that case, you sho uld only put the most relevant jobs you’ve ever had or jobs that are the most relevant for the position you’re applying for.That way, you will avoid having a too large resume, while also maintaining the most relevant information you have to include in it.When it comes to the proper way of writing the experience section of a lawyer resume, let’s take a look at the example to get a better insight. Right WrongThe first thing you can see in this example is that jobs are not written in chronological order, but in the exact opposite way, by listing the most recent jobs first and then moving back to the past.Also, for every job, there is a brief description of what kind of job activities were performed and what were some of the results that came out of those activities.This way, potential employers will learn something about your capabilities and things you have experienced in previous jobs, which will give them a better insight into how well you could be able to perform if they hired you.PROPER WAY OF PUTTING YOUR EDUCATION TO WORK ON YOUR LAWYER RESUMEThere are several important factors to consider if you want to become a lawyer, among which have the proper education is one of the crucial factors.Because of that, you need to think about the best way to write about education in your lawyer resume, so it would look as professional as possible.Normally, you would write this part of the resume similar to the previous one, with several differences, which will be mentioned after the example. Right WrongAs said, the concept is similar to writing the experience section. You should also start with the most recent education, then move back to the past.However, in the case of really experienced people, they often have a lot of jobs to put in their resume, so putting a lot of information about schools and universities would simply make the resume too big, which is something you need to avoid.Therefore, for people with a lot of experience, they can simply write their highest education, for example, their master’s degree if that is the highest level of education they’ve achieved.Also, similar to listing jobs, make sure to write a couple of points about the activities you did during your studies or some accomplishments you’ve achieved.For example, if you had good grades, make sure to include your GPA score because, even though grades are not the most important factor, they are pretty useful when it comes to distinguishing yourself from other candidates, especially in lawyer job s.Apart from that, make sure to write some accomplishments, such as participating in case studies, or getting onto the Dean’s list, in case the criteria for it were high.THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS EVERY LAWYER SHOULD HAVE IN THEIR RESUMEThe last part of a lawyer resume is reserved for your skills. People often ask how to write a resume skills section and what skills to add, especially if they have a lot of different skills to add.While it is true that having a lot of different kinds of skills is good and a lot of skills that are not directly related to jobs we have might be actually useful for doing other jobs, that doesn’t mean we should list all of our skills in the resume.Remember, you need to keep resume size to a minimum, without adding too much unnecessary information, even though it may seem useful.Because of that, you should only list those skills that are closely related to the job you are applying for, and exclude those jobs that are not important for this job.That way, you will make it easier for recruiters to read your resume and compare the skills you have with the skills they need from a person who would do the job they are offering. Right WrongTHE WINNING LIST OF ADVICE ON HOW TO GET A LAWYER JOBAs for now, we had covered all individual sections of the resume that are important and learned how to write them one by one.Now you know what personal information to include in your lawyer resume and how to write a short summary section, without making it too extensive, and yet very informative.You are aware of the best way to list your jobs and education in the resume and you know what skills are important for a lawyer.Now, let’s focus on several things that could be helpful in making your lawyer resume more professional and appealing to the eyes of the reader.1. Perfect Font Style to Make Your Lawyer Resume BeautifulOne of the things that could make your resume look very pretty and a bit more professional is basically the very first thing you need to select when you open a word document, which is, of course, font style.Now, we can’t say that there are several best fonts for your resume, simply because every resume sho uld be unique and, in a way, personal.What you should have in mind though, is to try to pair up the font you choose with other elements of the resume in that way that they fit together well.For example, think about the profession or the job position you’re applying for and then try to select the font style that goes well with it.Also, the template you make or download could also be a deciding factor, as well as your own personality, since you want to make your resume personal, you should think about the font you like.2. Optimize Your Lawyer Resume SizeOne of the most important things that could help your lawyer resume to look more professional and easier to read is excellent organization and optimal size for the amount of content you have to share.There are a lot of people who are very experienced and have a lot of jobs to list in their resumes. Because of that, they tend to make resumes that are even 3 or 4 pages long.That way of thinking is somehow wrong since resumes should onl y be around 1 or a maximum of 2 pages long, even with a lot of content.If you organize everything right, you will easily be able to fit that on those 2 pages, even if you have a lot of experience.There are several ways of doing that, which will all be covered a bit later. For now, the important thing is that you should only add the most important content in your resume and use some tricks to reduce the number of words, without losing any relevant information.3. Using Bulleting Lists to Organize Your ResumeOne of those ways that could help you to reduce the number of words, without losing actual content is, of course, the use of bulleting lists.Not just they could help you beautify your lawyer resume, but they could also help recruiters’ jobs easier because they would be able to read your resume much faster and compare skills you have with the skills needed for the job they offer.Also, instead of writing everything in paragraphs and sentences, you can easily shorten the content by writing it as different points.That look, along with the practical use of bulleting lists can easily transform your resume from messy text to a perfectly-organized resume.4. What File Formats are Suitable for Writing Lawyer Resume?When selecting the file format to use for your resume, there are two things to think about: practicality and professionality.Basically, there are two main types of text formats that are widely used for, not just writing the resume, but for almost writing everything.The most common type is .txt file format, which is used for writing everything, either via Word or some other software.It is very easy to edit or update this file format, which is why our recommendation is to keep one copy of your resume in this file format.On the other side, there is a .pdf file format, which is a bit harder to edit, but it does look a bit more professional than documents in .txt file format.Therefore, you should also keep one copy of your resume in .pdf file format and use it when you decide to apply for a job because it looks more professional and prettier to read than documents in .txt format.5. Selecting Well-Made Resume TemplateApart from font style and bulleting lists, another very useful tool that could make your resume look more professional is having a pretty nice template.The best solution would be to make your own template, which would give your resume a soul and make it more personal.However, it can be time-consuming and it requires a bit of knowledge in using MS Office package, especially Word.Therefore, a lot of people choose to download and use custom online resume templates, with which you can easily make a resume in a couple of minutes.If you decide to do that, however, make sure to download a resume template that would go well with the job position you’re applying for, as well as with your personality, to make the resume more personal.6. Importance of E-Mails and Why You Should Check Your E-Mails on a Daily BasisAs stated above, emails are one of the most important ways of communication in the business world, especially because they are the main way of applying for a job.However, sometimes there are problems with emails, like occasional bugs and messages that are not received or even sent.Also, a lot of messages tend to end up in the Spam folder, which doesn’t send notifications when new message arrives there.Therefore, you can easily miss really important messages if you don’t check your messages regularly, which could ruin your chances of getting the job.7. Reading Your Lawyer Resume After You Finish Writing ItLet’s imagine that you finished writing your lawyer resume and thought that finally, it’s the time to send it, but there is something that simply doesn’t feel right and you want to know what that is.If you think this way, you are completely right! Even after writing your resume, your job is not over because you need to go through it again and try to find if there are any types of mistakes, wheth er in content or simply some grammar mistakes.To do that, you should imagine that you are tasked with recruiting people for that same position and read your resume as it is a resume of some other applicant.That way, you will notice anything that could potentially be wrong and think of a way to fix those mistakes before you send the resume and apply for a job.8. Is Including Political Opinions in My Lawyer Resume Good Idea?Some people tend to think that we still live in communism. Some people do since there are some communist countries.However, in most cases that is not true and therefore, including your political opinion in your resume could be useful, but it could also bring more harm than good.For example, if recruiters had the same political opinions as yourself, or if they are in the same political party, then you would probably be safe and sound for the job.On the other hand, if that is not true, and if they belong to a different political body, then you might have a problem be cause they could choose not to be completely objective and remove you from the race, even before it started.Therefore, it is better not to share your political activities and opinions in a resume, because you want that recruiters stay objective most of the time.9. Fixing Your Grammar Mistakes Is Very Important!Everyone likes people who are polite and who use proper grammar. Don’t listen to those who say otherwise.Leaving a bunch of grammar errors in your lawyer resume would make it look very unprofessional, which could completely destroy your chances of being invited to a job interview.Therefore, always try to re-read your resume, so you could find any potential mistake, or simply use software like Grammarly, for example, which is capable of automatically detecting your grammar errors and fixing them.That would make your resume look neat and more professional, which simply goes well with the lawyer profession, doesn’t it?10. Always Update Your Lawyer ResumeWe live in a very fast -changing world, which is not only true in private and social areas, but also in the field of doing business.People change jobs faster than ever, so it’s needless to say that you always need to be ready to apply for some other job if a great opportunity pops up.In order to do that, you need to keep your resume updated all the time. That means if you learn something new, acquire a new skill or simply do some new important job, you should update your resume with it.That way, you will always be ready to send your resume to various companies and apply for different jobs, because you never know when you might stumble on a great job.11. Putting False Information in Your Resume Is a Bad IdeaWe are sure that you know A LOT of people who lied about something in their resume, whether it is just a simple skill or even something larger, such as adding fake courses.Some of those people might even get the job they want, but eventually, the truth will come out and if people who lie don’t acqui re the skill they lied about by then, there is always trouble ahead.For instance, you might say that you know how to handle divorce cases, but you had never done it before, nor learned about it.Then you get the divorce case and completely fail your client, simply because you lied about something trivial, rather than accepting the truth and learning more about things you don’t actually know.So, if you want to avoid being called a fraud and incompetent lawyer, you should definitely write only the truth in your resume.That way, potential employers will know if you perhaps need a starter training before fully committing to the job they’re offering.12. Preparing for a Job Interview is CrucialAs a final step before getting the job, you will most likely need to pass the job interview, where you will be asked a lot of questions, which sometimes can seem a bit weird.A lot of people make a mistake here and simply go to this meeting without any preparation and then they fail because they w eren’t ready.So, to avoid that, you should prepare yourself, by learning something more about the company you’re going to and even try finding something about the recruiter in charge of you.Some of this information is not always accessible, but when it is, it can be a great help, so don’t hesitate to check it out.Also, it is a good idea to learn more about the job itself and to prepare for questions that recruiters might ask you.To give you an example of how to ace a job interview, let’s see what Thomas Frank has to say about it and perhaps you will have a better understanding of how things are done. CONCLUSIONThere you go, folks! We’ve finally finished our guide on how to write a perfect lawyer resume in order to get the job you want.Here you learned why it is important to have a good resume, especially in the field of law, since the competition is great there.Apart from that, now you know what are all important parts of a good lawyer resume and how to write them without having to worry too much.What remains now is for you to step on it and write your own lawyer resume, by following our tips and tricks we had shared here.If you are still feeling a bit unsure about that, you can always use our resume template creator and make your resume in a few moments. Create your own resume