- Dates. Include month and year in all instances
- Law School Activities. Highlight only your most outstanding accomplishments.
If you do not have many, do not make them up and do not try to fill
the space with unimportant information. This will only give the impression
that you lack accomplishments. For example, do not include moot court
unless you won a prize or otherwise placed well in the competition.
- College Activities. Unless they are truly outstanding or relate closely
to law, they need not be included.
- Professional Work Experience. This is the most important
part of your resume. You should describe the types of matters that you
worked on and specific tasks that you performed (employer by employer).
For example, if you were a litigator, you might state that you handled
product liability, medical malpractice and workers’ compensation
cases and that your responsibilities included reviewing documents in
large scale document productions, research and writing, drafting pleadings,
taking or defending depositions of fact witnesses, parties or experts
and/or attending hearings. Litigators should refrain from using the
term “commercial litigation” without a breakdown of the types
of disputes. Corporate, transactional and business lawyers should divide
their practice experience into categories such as. general corporate,
finance or lending, real estate, securities, etc. Descriptions of representative
matters, including the type of party represented, dollar value and type
of transaction, some detail of your responsibilities on the deal and
your position/level of responsibility are important to include. The
broader your responsibilities, the lengthier you description will be.
Please be certain that you give a full description for each employer
because often where you did something is as meaningful as what you did.
Do not describe your clerkships during law school unless you are less
than two years out of school or you had a unique and impressive clerkship.
- Non legal Work Experience. Unless you had a “career” before
you went to law school, a unique and impressive job, or a job related
to law or your current area of practice, do not give a description of
your pre-lawyering jobs. If you decide that you need to describe a non
legal job, be as brief as possible.
- Additional Headings. Depends on your background. For example, if you
have been published a number of times, you may want a “Publications”
heading.
- Do Not State An Objective. Because your resume may be sent to different
types of organizations who have different objectives in retaining you,
you run the risk of shutting doors because of a perceived disparity
in purpose. This type of information, when necessary, is best conveyed
in a cover letter.
- Make Sure You Keep Your Resume Current. By showing a date of compilation,
you can explain very recent changes without causing alarm. Major changes,
such as a change of employment, warrant the revision of your resume
immediately.
- Do not list references on your resume. You might need to rely on different
references for different opportunities (for example, if you practiced
corporate and tax law at firm XYZ but only list a corporate lawyer as
a reference on your resume, you will need to change it or add to it
to give another reference if an opportunity in the tax area arises).
- Legal Focus. None of these rules is hard and fast. You will have to
decide how best to portray your accomplishments. We do suggest this
format, because many lawyers’ resumes are drafted in this manner.
Something more unusual may distract the reader from the information.
When you are deciding what to include, remember your audience is most
likely going to be a lawyer with some experience, and that he or she
is reviewing your resume because they are considering your for a legal
position. Therefore, you want your resume to convey as much as possible
about your legal abilities, including names and dates. For this reason,
your non legal background should not take over your resume.
- Your Resume Does Not Have To Be Typeset Or Printed. Any high quality
typewriter or letter quality printer will suffice. Proofread your resume
carefully. Typos and inaccuracies can cost you an opportunity. Also,
formatting is important. Multiple type styles, mixtures of underscore,
bold, uppercase headings, and more than three margin settings detract
from the information your need to communicate.
- Confidentiality. If you do not want your current employer to be aware of your search or want your search to remain confidential for any reason, put a simple statement to that effect at the bottom of your resume. Many resumes state “Please do not contact my present employer without my consent” or “Please keep my resume and inquiry confidential.”
If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact
us.
