Attorney Resume Example & Guide
A real example, 8 bullet points you can copy, salary ranges, and the specific things that get attorney resumes rejected.
Legal resumes are convention-bound and bar admission is the gate. Jurisdictions admitted, admission dates, and good standing come first — a firm cannot use an attorney who is not admitted where the work is.
After admission, practice area and matter experience carry the document. Case types, matter values, outcomes, and your specific role — first chair, second chair, brief author, deal lead — are what a hiring partner reads. Early in a career, law school, class rank, journal, and clerkships remain prominent in a way that would be unusual in any other profession.
Put education at the top — for now
While you have less than about a year of professional experience, education is legitimately your strongest section. Include your degree, institution, graduation date, relevant coursework, honours, and GPA if it is 3.5 or above. Once you have a year of work behind you, move it to the bottom and leave it there.
- Bar admissions with jurisdictions and dates
- Practice area depth matching their book
- Matter experience with values, outcomes, and your role
What hiring managers look for in a attorney resume
- Bar admissions with jurisdictions and dates
- Practice area depth matching their book
- Matter experience with values, outcomes, and your role
- Writing ability, often assessed via a writing sample
- Law school, honours, and clerkships early in a career
Certifications and licences for attorney roles
List these near the top of your resume. In this field they are eligibility requirements, not accomplishments — a recruiter cannot advance you without them.
- State bar admissions (jurisdictions and dates)
- Federal court admissions
- Juris Doctor
- Specialty certifications (e.g. CIPP for privacy)
Attorney salary range
Approximate US ranges for guidance when you are setting expectations or preparing to negotiate. Actual pay varies considerably by city, employer size, and industry.
Entry
$80K – $130K
0–2 years
Mid
$130K – $200K
3–7 years
Senior
$200K – $400K
8+ years
Attorney resume example
A Magnate layout filled with sample content. Every template on NavPeer is built to parse cleanly through applicant tracking systems — no text boxes, no sidebars that scramble your work history.
Attorney resume summary example
Three to four sentences at the top of the page, written in the first person without saying “I”. Rewrite it for every application — the summary is the cheapest place to show you read the job description.
8 attorney resume bullet points you can adapt
Copy any of these and replace the specifics with your own. The numbers here are realistic examples, not claims to borrow — swap in what actually happened, because you will be asked about every figure on your resume.
- Serve as lead counsel on commercial disputes with amounts in controversy from $500K to $40M, in state and federal courts in New York and New Jersey.
- First chair on 4 bench trials and second chair on 2 jury trials, with favourable outcomes in 5 of 6.
- Drafted and argued dispositive motions including 9 summary judgment motions, of which 6 were granted in whole or substantial part.
- Took and defended 60+ depositions including expert and corporate representative witnesses.
- Managed discovery in matters involving up to 800,000 documents, supervising a review team of 6 and negotiating ESI protocols with opposing counsel.
- Negotiated settlements resolving 30+ matters, in several instances below the client's reserved exposure.
- Advise clients on litigation risk and pre-dispute strategy, including three engagements where the recommendation was not to sue.
- Supervise and develop 3 junior associates including writing feedback and deposition preparation.
ATS keywords for this role
Applicant tracking systems match literal strings. Work the ones that genuinely apply to you into your summary, skills section, and bullets — and never into white text or a hidden block, which every modern system detects and most employers treat as disqualifying.
Section-by-section breakdown
Bar admissions at the top
Jurisdictions, admission dates, and good standing. It is a hard eligibility requirement and should never be buried.
Describe matters with your specific role
First chair, second chair, brief author, deal lead. Legal work is deeply collaborative and hiring partners want to know precisely what you did.
Keep academic credentials prominent early
Law school, honours, journal, and clerkships stay near the top for roughly the first five to seven years — this convention is specific to law and deviating from it is noticed.
Mistakes that sink attorney resumes
These are the failure modes specific to this role — not general resume advice you have already read a dozen times.
- Omitting bar admissions or their dates.
- Vague matter descriptions with no value, outcome, or role.
- Confidentiality breaches — describe matters generically unless they are public record.
- Exceeding two pages as an associate.
- No practice area focus, which makes you difficult to place in a firm's structure.
Frequently asked questions
Related resume examples
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