Resume Content
You have two choices for the format of the remainder of your resume: the reverse chronological format or the less common skills-based (also called "functional") format. Which format you choose depends on your individual situation. If you have a relatively straightforward or linear career path, use the reverse chronological format. If you are looking to move into a position in which you have little to no direct experience, or if you have a hard-to-follow background, many moves or questionable gaps on your resume, consider using the functional format.
The goal is for your resume to tell a clear story about your professional experience and how it relates to your target job – and you need to make it as easy as possible for the reader to understand that story. You should discuss with your counselor which format will better accomplish this goal given your target job.
The Reverse Chronological Resume
The easy-to-follow format of the reverse chronological is preferred by employers and generally consists of three sections:
Professional Experience
Education
Other (Bar admissions, professional and community associations, speaking engagements and publications, etc.)
Depending on the number of details, the third section may be further split into multiple subsections.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
What to include.
List the jobs you have held, with corresponding detailed descriptions, starting with your most recent job. For each position, list the firm’s or organization’s name, city and state, dates of employment, job title and a few (ideally, between three and six) bulleted accomplishments. It is appropriate to include legal experience gained via law school clinics or pro bono work in this section. It is also fine to include prior non-legal positions if they reflect experience gained or qualities that advance your professional goal (e.g., if you were promoted to a management position in a previous non-legal job; if you were a newspaper reporter and thus have demonstrated strong writing ability).
For law firm experience, one effective way to communicate your experience is to include the following bullets:
Clients include ----- (funds, banks, investors) (talent agencies, producers, distributors)
Matters or transactions include ----- (breach of contract, bad faith, arbitration) (M&A, lending, public offering)
Responsibilities include ----- (writing appellate briefs and a wide array of motions, interviewing witnesses, and conducting fast and expert witness depositions) (negotiating all purchase and sale terms, leading due diligence efforts, and serving as client's primary contact for legal team)
When describing your experience, it is helpful to break up or group long descriptions with bullets, paragraphs or headers (e.g., headings titled, “Securities experience” and “Mergers & Acquisitions experience” for corporate lawyers; “Intellectual property matters,” “Commercial disputes” and “Employment law matters” for general litigators).
For examples of bullet point language, organized by practice area, to use in your resume, download the hand-outs found below in the Resources section.
How it should read: Convey action.
When describing your professional experience, you should seek to convey action. Use verbs that relate to the position. Make sure to use present tense verbs if you are currently employed, and past tense if you are no longer employed by the organization. Carefully read the job description, and try to tailor your descriptions to the employer’s needs. Leave off any irrelevant or negative points that do not support your goal; there is no rule which says that a resume must include every single piece of information about you. If some of your work experience has no relevance to the job for which you are applying, leave it off. While it is tempting to focus on your duties and responsibilities, try as much as possible to focus on the results that you achieved in your work. Here are some examples of how to modify language to convey action:
Original: "Duties included drafting motions on behalf of financial services client."
Compare with: "Wrote numerous dispositive motions, including successful federal court summary judgment motion that resulted in dismissal of highly publicized class action against financial services client."
Original: "Conducted document review."
Compare with: "Helped create and implement cost-effective ediscovery document management process that allowed three-person team to review more than one million documents in one-month time frame and facilitated client’s early resolution of complex matter.”
If you need additional ideas, you’ll find a compilation of action verbs below to help you enhance your descriptions.
How it should read: Convey accuracy.
Unless you have your own clients, beware of using the word “represented” about yourself, because: (1) it may not technically be accurate and (2) future employers will care much more about your actual duties than about whom you (or your firm) represented. If you were part of a team, mention that – but also make sure to identify the specific role(s) that you played. This is especially true if you assumed any kind of management or supervisory role within the team. Here are some examples of how to modify language to accurately convey your specific roles and duties:
If your team represented a client in an acquisition...
Original: "Represented ABC Company in its acquisition of XYZ Company."
Compare with: "Member of legal team representing ABC Company in its acquisition of XYZ Company; managed all due diligence for the twelve-person team and served as the point-person for all environmental regulatory issues."
If you worked on a matter that involved representing a client at an arbitration hearing...
Original: "Represented financial services client in arbitration of customer dispute."
Compare with: "Second-chaired customer dispute arbitration hearing on behalf of a financial services client. Responsible for selecting and organizing more than 300 exhibits, writing direct- and cross-examinations of all lay witnesses and preparing lay and expert witnesses to testify."
Having trouble thinking of the specific achievements you want to highlight? Try completing the Achievements Worksheet available in the Resources section below.
EDUCATION
This section should ordinarily come after the “Professional Experience” section. There may be certain exceptions to this sequence that you should discuss with your counselor (e.g., if you are first- or second-year associate, if you are applying for clerkships, etc.)
List your education in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent degree earned. Make sure to include any honors and journal membership, as well as any publications if you wrote a law review or journal article. If you are still relatively junior, you may also list moot court or clinical experience, any areas of major or minor concentration and study-abroad.
If you are relatively junior and want to expand your “Professional Experience” section, you may include judicial clerkships, externships, internships and law school clinical work in that section. If you are more senior and have ample material to fill your “Professional Experience” section, it is fine to include those items in the “Education” section instead.
OTHER
Use this section to list all bar memberships by state and, if helpful, by court. Also list the names and dates of your memberships in relevant professional organizations and committees; if you held a leadership position or were given an award or honor, definitely mention that as well. And absolutely include any foreign language abilities, as long as you quantify your skills (e.g., fluent, proficient, conversational) in the language (and be prepared to carry on a conversation in that language during interviews).
People have different views on whether to include interests and hobbies. Some people prefer to leave them off unless they are relevant to the job or show traits that are arguably relevant to the job (e.g., marathon runner suggests a goal-oriented hard worker). Others think it is always fine to include interests and hobbies for their humanizing and conversation-starting potential. Either approach is fine, although it is more common for junior lawyers to list their interests and hobbies than it is for partners and other senior lawyers.
The Skills-Based Resume
If you want to change careers, or you otherwise have a difficult-to-follow employment background, consider using a skills-based resume.
WHEN TO USE IT
The two situations that are appropriate for a skills-based resume are:
When you have had many positions, or when your skills were obtained many years ago, and you want the reader to focus on your skills instead of those issues; and
When the target job is very different from that of a law firm attorney job, and you want the reader to focus on your skills instead of your title.
WHAT TO INCLUDE
If you are looking to make the kind of career change that requires you to use a skills-based resume, it is imperative that you create a strong profile statement to make it easy for the reader to see what skills you have that make you a viable candidate for the job. Next, substantiate your profile statement by grouping your experience by transferable skill and personal quality (rather than by position held). Read your target job description carefully, so you can identify the most important specific skills and qualities desired. Then, list the ones that you have by group on your resume.
Example: A tax lawyer at a firm who seeks to become the Executive Director of a non-profit organization might list their relevant skills by using the following headers...
Leadership and Management Skills
Oral and Written Communication Skills
Organizational Skills
Fundraising and Donor-Relations Skills
Underneath each header, this person would list all of their experience and education in that area.
Do not make the common mistake of thinking that the only legitimate skills you have are those you obtained via paid work; think expansively. Also consider experience and skills gained via volunteer work; Bar association and other committees; board, community or religious institution involvement; your school or alumni extracurricular activities; classes taken; CLEs attended; certifications; etc.
Electronic/Online Resume Submissions
In most cases, you should view online applications (via an organization’s website or a job search website) as a necessary evil. The online submission is required in order for you to be considered for the job, but try to set yourself apart from the throngs of applicants by getting your resume into the hands of the applicable decision-maker(s) via networking.
Many large companies and organizations use word recognition applicant tracking software to screen electronically submitted resumes. While it is widely known among Human Resources professionals that most of these programs do not work well, you should nevertheless try to include as many keywords as possible in your resume in case a computer, rather than a human being, performs the initial screen. Read the job posting, and try to mirror the keywords used, focusing on both prominence and frequency in your resume.
RESOURCES
Below you will find sample language that other lawyers have used to describe their relevant experience. Click to download the document that is relevant to your practice area.