In-House Counsel

Quick Ways To Refresh, Optimize, And Modernize Your Legal Resume

While a resume is the initial threshold to land an interview, it’s no longer a laundry list of your tasks, job functions, and responsibilities.

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As a legal resume writer and coach, I read dozens of legal resumes a week from senior law firm partners and executive-level corporate counsels (general counsels and chief legal officers). Most often, their resumes are outdated and a continuation of that good old template they created back in law school more than 15 years ago. While a resume is the initial threshold to land an interview, it’s no longer a laundry list of your tasks, job functions, and responsibilities. Today, a resume is a strategic marketing document that must quickly (and succinctly) communicate your value to an employer with factual examples and results. Struggling to update your legal resume and bring it into the modern age? Here are some quick ways to help you refresh, optimize, and modernize your legal resume and get the attention of legal recruiters or hiring executives.

Upgrade The Font On Your Legal Resume

If you’re still using that same legal resume template from the 1990s and early 2000 era, it’s likely the one written in Times New Roman font with the headers in a column format. Just as you wouldn’t wear sweatpants to a live, in-person interview, Times New Roman is considered the sweatpants of fonts because it’s old and lackluster. Today’s digital reader is quickly skimming your resume for content that pops out. Times New Roman font is hard to digest and read on a computer screen since the curvature in the letters constricts the readability. Upgrade your resume font to a sans serif font such as Calibri or Helvetica. Remember, your resume must be easy on the eyes.

Make Your Headers Clear In Your Legal Resume

Readers of your resume should be able to easily distinguish where your headers (professional experience, education, etc.) end and where they begin. Centering them is best with a border line underneath or a color fill around them. Color is perfectly acceptable for your headers in today’s modern legal resume. However, stick to a dark blue or dark gray (you can see samples of legal resumes on my website for better reference and visual explanation).

As someone who writes legal resumes every week, I opt for a classic design format that is modernized but still retains the elements of a minimalist style for maximum readership and ease on the reader’s eyes. And, as I’ve explained in presentations to the Association of Corporate Counsel, American Bar Association, and countless legal organizations, legal resumes avoid the use of graphs, charts, and Etsy-style templates. The legal resume is still a formal document. It is not a fun or snazzy brochure for a PR event, no matter if you think it looks fun, vibrant, or unique.

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Organize Your Legal Resume Strategically And Make It Easy To Read 

The formula for writing a legal resume has also changed. It now includes a branding statement and headline letting a reader know your career level (e.g., general counsel or labor and employment counsel) and three or four main areas of expertise followed by a professional summary which frames your career highlights and includes a mixture of hard and soft skills that align with a job posting. Your professional experience section requires a build-out of your growth and promotions within the law firm or company’s legal department (note: make sure you provide an overview of the size/stature of the company or firm), a short paragraph of your job functions and leadership responsibilities, and bullet points of relevant accomplishments that connect to your legal leadership as well as areas of expertise (e.g., governance, transactions, compliance, litigation). This means giving examples of relevant transactions and representative matters. You may wish to opt for a deal sheet which provides a more exhaustive list of your representative engagements and biggest transactions.

Of course, the further back you go, the more remote things become. If you’re 15-plus years out (or more) and currently a managing attorney, law firm partner, or executive-level counsel, your law clerk positions and early associate roles (where you’re an individual contributor) become minimized in the resume, especially if you’re seeking another executive-level legal role. Keep your past work in past tense, avoid pronouns, and limit extraneous words. Your bullet points should be short, terse, and succinct. Large blocks of text make it difficult to read and comprehend. Approach your bullet points with the CAR formula: challenge, action, and result. You want to build context around your work and task as well as the outcome.

Your education section should include your degrees, honors, and then the school’s name and location. Consider including relevant activities and honors, recognizing that the further you get into your legal career, these items will be more minimized and only the biggest ones will be showcased (e.g., merit scholarships, law review, moot court, and prestigious legal internships). Include all relevant professional development, certifications, and bar admissions. You will have a separate section for leadership and affiliations as well as recent (within the past five to seven years) speaking engagements and publications.

Realize that in a two-page resume, you will never be able to include every single thing you’ve done. The key is to create a snapshot for the reader (the C-suite, board, or hiring executive team) as to your best-selling assets, skills, and accomplishments.

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Fact-Check Your Legal Resume Against Targeted Job Postings

If you’re not reviewing job postings on a regular basis, head into the LinkedIn job search portal or goinhouse.com and select four or five targeted roles (making sure they are at your appropriate career level). If you’ve been following my ATL column for a while, you know I advocate strongly for reading through multiple job postings before you write your legal resume. It’s also something you should do when you’re done writing your legal resume. I can’t emphasize this point enough. You want to understand the skill sets and specific experience sought out in the legal positions (you’ll often notice patterns of repetition within the keywords) and then match those skill sets to examples within your professional experience and career trajectory of your legal resume.

Have a question about your legal resume or additional questions surrounding how to modernize your legal resume for a digital-age job search? Connect with me on LinkedIn and feel free to ask.

Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at wendi@writingguru.net, connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.

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