How to Write the Best Attorney Resume for Your Legal Career

 

SUMMARY

This article guides how to write a successful resume for law firms, explaining why it is essential to focus on a single practice area and demonstrate expertise. It also outlines tips for what law firms look for in an attorney's resume, such as avoiding generalist roles or having too many unrelated practice areas. Finally, the article offers assistance from BCG Attorney Search, which has helped to place thousands of attorneys in top legal positions around the country. Their expertise and knowledge can help you select the right practice area and position your resume for success in your legal search.  

QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS ARTICLE

 

• What is the main focus when writing a legal resume?
  The main focus should be on the practice area where you have the most recent experience; this will set your resume apart from the competition and demonstrate to a future employer that you are knowledgeable and experienced.
   
• How do law firms typically hire attorneys?
  Law firms typically hire attorneys based on their experience and expertise in a particular practice area; they look at attorney resumes to determine if candidates have the necessary qualifications.
   
• What types of law firms would not hire an attorney who is both a litigator and a patent attorney?
  Litigation attorneys are incompatible with corporate attorneys, so big law firms would not hire someone who is both a litigator and a patent attorney.
   
• What qualities should an attorney have to be successful when applying for a legal job?
  Attorneys should have a strong focus on their legal career, experience in the specific area of law, and a passion for one field of work to be successful when applying for legal jobs.
   
• What type of assistance is available for writing a legal resume?
  BCG Attorney Search offers assistance in writing a legal resume that can help to get more interviews and job offers; they have experience placing thousands of attorneys in top legal positions around the country and can help to select the right practice area and position your resume for success.

Do you want to land a dream legal job and take your career to the next level? If so, the best advice for writing resumes is this—only focus on one practice area. A winning resume signals to a potential employer that you are an ideal fit for a specific practice area. 

Unfortunately, many lawyer resumes focus on a wide range of areas. And worst still, some attorneys insist on including their political, religious, and social affiliations on their resumes for reasons only they know. And what happens? They alienate someone in the hiring process, and they always need to get the legal position they want. 

It’s good to realize that writing the best resume to further your legal career is more than finding the right template and scanning the resume for errors or typos. And it’s not about trying to showcase your wide experience and varied experience in the legal industry. Instead, a legal resume that gets a job is focused on one thing—a specific practice area. 

How can your attorney resume stand out from the competition and get noticed by potential employers? In this article, I will share with you the best advice on how to write an awesome attorney resume to advance your legal career.
 

How to Avoid Common Mistakes in a Legal Resume

The most common mistake attorneys make when applying for a legal position is to lose focus on their future careers. Of course, experience in the legal industry is vital. Also, many employers are interested in your education, which law school you attended, and your grade. However, during the job interview, employers only want to know if you can do the work you applied for. 

Another common mistake is paying too much attention to formatting the resume. For example, if you do a quick online search on “how to write the best attorney resume,” you will find that most advice focuses on constructing the resume. Of course, checking a resume for typos and grammar errors is vital. However, that is basic advice for any resume. 

The best way to avoid common resume mistakes is to omit anything unrelated to the job. Here are some subjects to keep off any resume:

• Your thoughts and feelings on social issues
• Your political and religious affiliations
• Social groups that you belong to
• A list of your interest and hobbies or activities in fighting for social causes

What happens is that these issues on a resume represent red flags to legal hiring managers. And they put you in a negative light compared to other candidates with resumes focused on the practice area they are applying for. 

Unfortunately, the bottom line is this—law firm employers do not care about your hobbies, opinions, and affiliations. They only care if your legal skills will be an asset to the firm.
 

What Employers Care About on Your Attorney Resume

When applying for a legal position in a law firm, put yourself in the employer’s shoes. What is the main thing you would be interested in during the interview? Do you want to know the applicant’s views on social issues? Or would it be best to ensure they have the specialized skills for the job they are applying for? The answer is simple. 

What are the main things employers are interested in? Here are four facts to keep in mind when positioning your resume to land a top legal job: 

• If your resume is focused on a specific legal practice area, you significantly increase your chance of getting a lot of interviews on our job hunt.
• Law firms are only interested in your focus of experience, not whether you went to Harvard Law School or not. 
• Showing many types of legal experience can damage your hiring potential.
• Always show you are deeply interested in practicing law, not fighting social issues. 

It’s vital to remember that your resume must make it clear to the employer why they should hire you for the job. If you get this right, you will be in the five percent of applicants who always get interviews for the best job openings.

At BCG Attorney Search, we help new and experienced legal professionals develop a job resume focused on a single practice area. We can focus on your practice area to showcase your skills with the attorney job description section on the resume. Additionally, we ensure the legal cover letter grabs attention and helps increase your chances of getting an interview.
 

What Employers Do Not Care About on Your Lawyer Resume

When applying for a law firm job, it is crucial to omit anything distracting from your primary goal—to practice law in a top firm. Therefore, law firm hiring managers are simply not interested in many aspects of your life.

Including unimportant facts and minor issues only waters down your resume. It makes it weak, uninteresting, and lukewarm. And with high levels of competition in the top big law firms, you don’t want to give potential employers any reasons to eliminate you.

Regarding getting hired, only one thing is important—the legal practice area. Here are seven things you may think are important but are ultimately irrelevant to your resume:

• The quality of your qualifications—the law school you attended or previous employers. 
• The different types of work experience you have. 
• Your commitment to social issues. 
• Your proficiency at organizing committees.
• Any previous work or skills unrelated to the job you are applying for.
• Emphasizing technical skills, thinking they will help save the employer money on training. 
• Listing a range of interpersonal skills.

Of course, the fact you have wide experience in many aspects of the legal industry is something to be proud of. And the fact that you have certain technical and soft skills is excellent. But, unfortunately, it’s not what your employer wants. 

Remember, the fact you trained as an airline pilot before practicing law does not mean anything in the legal job market. Or being passionate about some social issues will not make you a suitable candidate for a trademark attorney position. 

Your resume must make a positive impression; therefore, you must eliminate anything unrelated to the type of practice area where you want to work in your next job.
 

How to Focus on a Single Practice Area to Write the Best Legal Resume in Your Legal Jobs Search

Your resume must stand out from the competition to get accepted for interviews and land a job at a top legal firm. However, do not make the common mistake of thinking that wide experience in multiple areas will impress employers. On the contrary, an unfocused resume weakens your candidacy and puts your legal career on hold. 

Here are three ways to write a winning one-page resume focusing on a specific practice area.
 

1. Show you are a committed specialist attorney on your resume.

Attorneys with strong skills in a specific area get hired. Therefore, ensure that your resume shows you are a specialist with the experience to be the best in your field. 

Here is a sobering fact: BCG Attorney Search has made thousands of placements. However, it is rare—if ever—we can place a generalist in a successful law firm. 

How can you write a resume to show you are a specialist attorney? Here are a few tips:
 

• Remove all references from your resume that are irrelevant to your focus area. 
• Choose a practice area closest to the job you are applying for.
• Do not send resumes to law firms that are general and lack focus.
   

2. Focus on one specific practice area

When applying for a legal job, one must focus on one practice area. This means you should list only areas of expertise in your resume. Of course, it is tempting to list as many skills as possible. However, on a legal resume, remember this—less is more. 

For example, suppose you are applying for a position as an immigration attorney. In that case, the only practice area that should be listed on your resume is immigration law. Do not include any other practice areas like family law, corporate law, or trademark law. 

What if you have had several practice areas in the past few years? In that case, only write about what you are currently doing. This way, you can present yourself in the strongest light. 

Think about this from the employer’s viewpoint. They do not want to hire a “jack of all practice areas but master of none.” Instead, they want an attorney with a sense of focus and long-term commitment. 

For example, imagine what would happen in a hospital if they hired a brain surgeon with only six months of experience. And his resume shows they had worked as a general practitioner for a year, a pediatrician for six months, and a nurse for two years. So, of course, they have a lot of experience in the medical industry. But would you trust the surgeon to operate on your brain? You would even question their expertise as general practitioners. 

The resume type that shows interest in many different areas of law, politics, and social issues will only get you an interview if you have a top legal job.
 

3. Select a practice area you have the most experience

Unsurprisingly, your chances of getting hired for a top legal job significantly increase if you show relevant experience. Therefore, ensure you showcase your extensive experience in the legal practice area where you want to practice law. 

Law firms have a responsibility to their clients. Therefore, they must match attorneys with the type of issues their clients must deal with. Here are three examples:

• A law firm client is accused of murder. The firm will not want a lawyer with litigation experience or a patent attorney. Instead, they need someone experienced in criminal law. 
• A law firm client wants to sell their company. Would the firm assign the case to an attorney with a long list of pro bono work and highlights his top skill as conflict resolution? Hardly.
• A family law firm that is handling a messy divorce. They need an attorney with years of family law experience who has successfully won many cases. 

 

How Law Firms Hire Attorneys

Law firms typically hire attorneys based on their experience and expertise in a particular practice area. Therefore, they want to ensure that the attorney they are hiring is well-versed in the specific area of law and can handle any legal issues that may arise.

Law firms look at attorney resumes to determine if candidates have the necessary qualifications. The hiring process is as simple as this—resumes with a strong focus practice area go to the top of the pile. 

Whether you like it or not, legal employers are interested in something other than what you want to do. Therefore, knowing how a law firm hires will help you apply for the right jobs based on your skills and experience. Here are a few tips:

• Law firms rarely hire attorneys to do defense and plaintiff work. 
• A litigation attorney is incompatible with a corporate one; you cannot be both.
• A law firm will not hire you if you are to be a trademark lawyer if you are a patent attorney.
• A Biglaw firm will not hire you as a litigator if you went in-house and now do corporate, litigation, and intellectual property work. This is because you are now a generalist, no longer a specialist.

Preferably, your resume should show that you have a strong focus on your legal career and are passionate about one field of work. If you’ve shifted your interest areas in the past, chances are you’ll do so again. Law firms do not want these types of attorneys.
 

Writing a Resume to Further Your Legal Career

Successful attorneys know that writing an eye-catching resume to get interviews and job offers requires focusing on a single practice area. It is not about persuasive writing or using the right keywords in the attorney resume skills section. 

The competition for lawyer jobs is fierce. Therefore, when writing your resume, focus on the practice area where you have the most recent experience. This will set your resume apart from the competition and demonstrate to a future employer that you are knowledgeable and experienced.

Do you need assistance writing a legal resume to help you get more interviews and top job offers? If so, please reach out to BCG Attorney Search. We have helped to place thousands of attorneys in top legal positions around the country. We know how to select the right practice area and position your resume for success in your legal search.
 

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