Law Schools

The Return Of The Résumé

Another deep dive into résumés.

By Nicholas Alexiou on June 03, 2019 4:16 pm

The Godfather – Part III.  The Matrix Revolutions.  Return of the Jedi.  Sometimes, the third part of a trilogy falls flat — I mean, Ewoks are basically uglier Porgs that are even less necessary for the plot.

Last week’s column, my second on the subject of résumés, was a deep dive into résumé headers.  While obviously important if for no other reason than a header resides at the top of one’s résumé, and thus will be the first thing someone reads, it is not the entirety of the document.  Therefore, I am going to continue the deep dive into résumés and hope this iteration is more Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and less Batman Forever.

With your header in place, next up should be a discussion of one’s academic and work history.  How to order these sections will be dependent on where one currently is in their legal career.  For law students or those who recently graduated, go ahead and lead off with your education section.  Attorneys who have been in practice for a number of years should start with their experience section.  The rationale is relatively straightforward.  When applying for a position, you want those reviewing your résumé to come across the most relevant portions of your background first.  Ideally, that would be one’s actual practice of law, but if that is not an option, how a candidate excelled academically is a perfectly fine alternative.

The basics of the education section are relatively straightforward.  List your degrees in inverse chronological order with the most recent academic foray first, even if it is still in progress.  While you should include all pursuits of higher education, there is probably not a need to go further back into one’s history.  Some students and even experienced attorneys want to note their high school diploma on their résumé.  By in large, this is unnecessary, bordering on weird.  No one really cares about your high school exploits, Al Bundy.  But like most things in life, there are some exceptions.  If you graduated from an elite boarding school, that’s probably worth listing, not because the level of education is markedly higher than that of students at PS 123, but rather, because the alums of said boarding school are likely highly represented in the partnership ranks of Biglaw and throughout the C-suites of the Fortune 100. What can best be described as inherent networking can only help one’s candidacy.  Here in Nashville, graduates of three private high schools (Harpeth Hall, Montgomery Bell Academy, and University School of Nashville) have their hands on most of the levers of power.  While I understand why someone might not want to exploit this manifestation of inequality for reasons of basic fairness, it is definitely something that can help one’s candidacy.

Perhaps no issue causes greater consternation for both students and attorneys alike than that of grade point average (GPA).  To list, or not to list, that is often the question, Horatio.  When working with Vanderbilt students, my standard advice is to list any GPA that is 3.0 or higher.  For students whose grades do not meet this standard, it’s probably best to leave GPA off and let the brand name of the law school hopefully carry the day.  Omitting it from your résumé does not mean that an employer will not eventually discover your GPA in a transcript, or elsewhere, but ideally, they have fallen in love with the rest of your résumé to the point that they are willing to let slide grades below their typical standards.  An important point here is that if GPA is not going to be listed for law school, it similarly needs to be left off for undergraduate studies.  There is no worse giveaway that a candidate is trying to hide poor academic performance at one stage of their education than leaving off GPA when it is included everywhere else.  Some students, and even practicing attorneys, like to include sub-GPA, e.g., their GPA from their collegiate major or during a particular semester in law school.  Personally, that seems unnecessary.  If you want to tell the story about how your grades improved over time in law school, use your cover letter or your interview to get that point across.

In addition to basics like attended institutions and grades, you will definitely want to list any honors and activities from law school or other stops on one’s academic journey.  Always start these lists with the most impressive credential first.  More often than not, “impressive” is synonymous with exclusive or most difficult to achieve.  Thus, receiving the highest grade in a class, i.e., “booking” it, trumps being named to the Dean’s List since far more students achieve the latter in a given semester than the former.  If you have combined honors with activities in a single section, then list the academic achievements first before delving into clubs and other activities (my recommendation).  Again, such a structure derives from what a candidate wants to show an employer first.  Booking a half dozen classes is going to have a nearly infinite greater impact than one’s board position on the Law & Business Society.  If you completed a thesis in either undergrad or graduate school, go ahead and list the title.  Any opportunity to highlight one’s writing skills should be strongly embraced, especially for those looking to litigate.

One question I constantly get from students is how involved must they be in a particular campus organization to list it on a résumé.  If you have ever been to a meeting or signed up for an email list, you are a full-fledged member.  Congratulations!  Hopefully, you got jackets.  The other great organization-based question is what to do about organizations with an obvious political lean like the American Constitution Society or the Federalist Society.  The simple answer is if you want to maximize your chances of being employed, leave them off.  This is not merely because the person reviewing your application/conducting an interview might have politics on the opposite end of the spectrum, but for some employers, the mere fact that a candidate lists such organizations evinces bad judgment because you should have known it could be an issue and left it off.  And even if it is not an issue for someone in the organization, there is a constant fear of how a new attorney’s politics might impact the employer’s relationship with a client.  That all being said, my actual advice is a bit more nuanced.  If you have a deeply held belief in your personal politics, leave organizations that reflect your stance on your résumé.  Yes, it might cost you some job opportunities, but as someone with very strong political beliefs, I can assure you that you would be exceedingly unhappy working someone where those thoughts and beliefs had to be kept under wraps.  I mean, do you really want to work at a place where you feel uncomfortable ranting about the latest nonsense to come from Trump’s Twitter feed?

What are some things to exclude from the education section?  Well, given that space is constantly at a premium in a résumé, this is not the place to recite your entire class schedule for three years of law school.  That is why transcripts exist.  Also, you do not have to indicate that you plan to take a bar exam after graduation.  That is pretty much a given for most students.  However, for international students, either J.D.s or LL.M.s, go ahead and list that, as it is evidence of your plans to stay in the U.S. after graduation.

Rather than go into the work experience section, I will save that for next week.  The education section can be the Jack Aubrey to the experience section’s Stephen Maturin.  Besides, it is not as if the fourth entry in a series has ever been that bad.

Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at [email protected].