A hiring partner usually checks two things before reading a single bullet: your bar admissions and your practice area. Then comes the work, from motions and depositions to trials and closed deals, and how much of it you handled yourself. Since most of those matters belong to clients you cannot name, each one has to be described by its type and size. That habit, plus a clear headline under your name, does most of the work on an attorney resume.
How to Write an Attorney Resume - Key Takeaways
- Lay out your roles newest first in reverse-chronological order, on 1 page, or 2 after 7 to 10 years or with a long list of trials or deals.
- Put your practice area and your admitting state in the headline, such as Litigation Attorney, admitted in Maryland.
- Put a legal number in each bullet: open matters, motions won, depositions taken, trials, deal value or documents reviewed.
- Describe matters by type and size, and name a client or case only when it is public and your firm agrees.
- Open the Certificates section with each bar admission, its state and its year, then federal court admissions, and add the MPRE only while you wait for admission.
- Check the final file with an ATS resume checker, since large firms and legal departments screen through applicant tracking systems.
What hiring partners look for in an attorney resume
A hiring partner or general counsel reads your resume and asks 3 things: are you licensed where they need you, do you practice the kind of law they do, and how much have you handled without supervision? The BLS lists advising and representing clients, researching legal issues and preparing and filing documents such as lawsuits, contracts and wills as core duties. O*NET adds interpreting laws and regulations for clients and analyzing the probable outcome of a case from precedent.
Your bullets should answer those questions with matter types, volume and results. Build the page from these sections:
- Name, a headline with your practice area and admitting state, and contact details
- Summary of 2 to 3 lines under your name (it needs no heading)
- Work Experience, current role first, with matters described by type and size
- Skills, with your research and practice software
- Certificates, opening with your bar admissions
- Education, with your J.D. and any journal, moot court or clinic
- Optional: Languages, plus Key Achievements for moot court wins, or Volunteer Experience for pro bono clinics
Best format for an attorney resume
Use the reverse-chronological resume format, with your current position first and each entry showing your title, the firm or organization, its location and MM/YYYY dates for when you joined and left. Legal careers are judged by progression and by how long you stayed: associate to senior associate, counsel or partner, or staff attorney to supervising attorney. This format shows that path at a glance, and law firm recruiters expect it.
- Best for most attorneysReverse-chronologicalYour jobs, newest first, with your results under each one.Best for: A steady work history in your field
- FunctionalSkills grouped up top, with a short work history below.Best for: Gaps or very little experience
- CombinationA skills section first, then your full work history.Best for: A career change with strong skills
Keep it to 1 page in your first 7 to 10 years of practice. A 2-page resume fits a counsel, partner or senior in-house lawyer with many trials, deals or jurisdictions, provided page 1 holds your current and previous roles. If a firm wants a full list of your matters, it will ask for a deal sheet or a representative matters list as a separate document.
| Setting | What to use |
|---|---|
| Length | 1 page early in practice; 2 for a long trial, deal or management record |
| Headline | Practice area plus admission: Employment Attorney, admitted in Illinois |
| Bar admission line | State, status and year under Certificates, such as State Bar of Texas, active, 11/2018 |
| Dates | MM/YYYY for every role, with Present for your current one |
| Typeface | A conservative serif or sans serif, 10.5 to 12 pt, in black |
| Photo, birth date, bar number | No photo on most US and Canadian resumes; your bar number, age and family status stay off too |
Most US and Canadian resumes carry no photo, and legal employers in particular expect a plain, text-first page. Save it as a PDF unless the firm's application portal wants a Word file.
Attorney resume summary vs. objective
Use a resume summary once you are admitted and practicing: 2 to 3 lines with your practice area, your admission, your years and 1 result a hiring partner can check. Use an objective only while you wait for bar results or move into law from another career. Draft it last, borrowing a figure from your strongest bullet.
Attorney resume summary formula
Practice area attorney admitted in state with X years in matter types. Best outcome and its figure. Court admissions, trial or deal experience.
Example
Litigation attorney admitted in Maryland with 6 years in commercial and construction disputes. Drafted 17 dispositive motions, 12 of them granted in full or in part. Admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, with 2 bench trials as first chair.
Don't
Dedicated and results-driven attorney with excellent research and writing skills, seeking a position at a respected firm.
Do
Employment defense attorney admitted in Georgia with 4 years representing mid-size employers. Drafted 60 EEOC position statements and tried 1 discrimination case to a defense verdict.
The stronger version names the practice, the client type, a volume and an outcome a partner can ask about in the interview.
How to write attorney work experience bullets with numbers
Your present role takes 3 to 4 bullets, earlier ones 2 to 4, and each opens on a verb. Most legal work can be counted: files open, motions argued, depositions taken, deals closed and their value. Turn duties into achievements on your resume by adding the scale and the result to each one.
| Area | What to count | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| Caseload | Open files, matter types, how many you lead | Managed 45 open premises liability files from intake to resolution as lead counsel. |
| Motion practice | Motions drafted or argued, how many succeeded | Argued 11 motions for summary judgment in state court and won 8. |
| Trials and hearings | Trials, chair role, arbitrations, verdicts | Second-chaired 3 jury trials and examined 9 witnesses at trial. |
| Settlements | Mediations, amounts, time to resolution | Negotiated a $1.8M settlement 4 weeks before trial in a breach of warranty case. |
| Transactions | Deals closed, deal value, documents drafted | Drafted and closed 14 asset purchase agreements with a combined value of $62M. |
| Discovery and review | Documents reviewed, reviewers supervised, platform | Ran a 240,000-document review in Relativity with a team of 6 contract reviewers. |
Here is how a litigator's entry reads with these counts filled in. The bullets describe each matter by type and dollar amount instead of client name, and the earlier role gets fewer lines.
Work Experience
- Carry 31 active commercial and construction matters in Maryland state and federal courts, leading discovery and strategy on each.
- Drafted 17 dispositive motions; courts granted 12 in full or in part.
- First-chaired 2 bench trials, including a $2.4M contract claim that ended in a defense judgment.
- Supervise 3 paralegals and 1 junior associate on deposition preparation, with 26 depositions taken or defended since 2022.
- Prepared 140 demand letters and pleadings for collection and lease disputes.
- Represented clients at 9 mediations, settling 7 before trial.
Don't
Responsible for drafting motions and conducting legal research.
Do
Researched and wrote 8 motions to dismiss in federal products liability cases; the court dismissed 5 at the pleading stage.
Motion type, court, volume and result: a partner can test each one.
Don't
Assisted with real estate transactions for commercial clients.
Do
Negotiated and closed 40 commercial leases a year for a regional retail landlord, cutting the average turnaround from first draft to signature to 5 business days.
Legal skills and research software for an attorney resume
Choose 6 to 8 hard skills for your resume that the posting names and that your bullets back up. Litigators lead with motion practice, discovery and trial skills; transactional attorneys with drafting, negotiation and due diligence.
Hard skills for attorneys
- Legal research and writing
- Motion practice
- Depositions and discovery
- Trial advocacy
- Contract drafting and negotiation
- Due diligence
- Case strategy and risk assessment
- E-discovery and document review
- Regulatory compliance
- Settlement negotiation
Soft skills hiring partners value
- Clear client communication
- Sound judgment under deadlines
- Persuasive writing
- Discretion with confidential information
- Calm in the courtroom
- Managing paralegals and junior lawyers
Put your systems in the Skills section by their exact names and use each one in a bullet. O*NET flags Microsoft Office as in-demand for lawyers and lists Thomson Reuters Westlaw and LexisNexis among their research tools. Name the version you used: Westlaw Precision only from 09/2022, when Thomson Reuters introduced it, and Lexis+ AI only from late 2023. Add Relativity or Everlaw for e-discovery, Clio or NetDocuments for practice and document management, and Adobe Acrobat for redaction and Bates numbering, where you have done that work.
Bar admissions, MPRE and UBE: how to list attorney credentials
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook says lawyers typically need a law degree and a state license, usually from passing a bar examination. Put each admission at the top of your Certificates section, with the issuing body and the year, and list anything else as you would any certifications on a resume: federal court admissions, a mediator certification or a privacy credential.
| Credential | Issued by | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| State bar admission | Usually the state's highest court, through its bar admission board or state bar | In most states, a J.D. from an accredited law school, a passed bar exam and a character and fitness review. |
| MPRE (Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination) | NCBE | A 2-hour, 60-question ethics exam, scored from 50 to 150 and offered 3 times a year. Required for admission in all US jurisdictions except Wisconsin and Puerto Rico; Connecticut and New Jersey accept a law school course instead. |
| UBE score (Uniform Bar Examination) | NCBE, with admission by each jurisdiction | The MBE, the MEE and 2 MPT tasks. 35 jurisdictions use it, and a score can be transferred to seek admission in another UBE jurisdiction. |
| NextGen UBE | NCBE, with admission by each jurisdiction | First given in 07/2026 in 10 jurisdictions, Maryland, Oregon and Washington among them. Most jurisdictions move to it by 07/2028; the legacy UBE runs through 02/2028. |
Pending bar results and admissions in more than 1 state
Until you are sworn in, write the exam and its date with a status, such as Maryland Bar Exam, 07/2026, results pending, and keep Attorney out of your headline; use Law Clerk or J.D. instead. Admitted in more than 1 state? List each admission on its own line, newest first, and mark any inactive license as inactive so a reader never has to check the bar's directory to learn it. Drop the MPRE once you are admitted, since the admission already covers it.
Certificates
- Maryland bar admission, Court of Appeals of Maryland, 12/2019
- U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, admitted 06/2020
How to list a J.D., law review and moot court on your resume
Most states require a Juris Doctor from an accredited law school, the BLS reports, and becoming a lawyer usually takes 7 years of full-time study after high school. List the J.D. first, then your bachelor's degree, each with school, location and graduation month, following the rules for listing education on a resume. Write the school's name as it was in your graduation year.
Law employers read the Education section more closely than most fields do, especially in your first 5 years. Add Latin honors, a journal or law review position, moot court or mock trial, and a clinic with what you handled in it. Give your GPA or class rank only if the firm asks for it or it is in the top third; after 5 years of practice, trim the section to degrees and honors.
Education
Staff Editor, Maryland Law Review.
Entry-level, lateral and in-house attorney resumes
As a new graduate or recent admittee, follow the entry-level attorney layout: Education above Work Experience, a short objective, then every piece of legal work you did in law school, counted the same way a practicing attorney counts matters.
- Clinics: clients represented, hearings attended, filings you drafted under supervision.
- Summer associate or law clerk roles: memos written, practice groups rotated through, assignments for partners.
- Judicial externships or clerkships: the court, bench memos and draft opinions.
- Moot court and mock trial: rounds argued, briefs written and placements, under Key Achievements.
- Pro bono and legal aid work: hours and client matters, under Volunteer Experience if you skip Key Achievements.
Don't
Recent law school graduate seeking an associate position where I can grow my legal skills.
Do
J.D. graduate awaiting July 2026 bar results, seeking a litigation associate role. Represented 2 tenants at eviction hearings through a housing clinic and drafted bench memos during a 12-week federal externship.
Even a new graduate's objective needs evidence: a clinic result, an externship or a writing credit.
A lateral move or a switch to an in-house role keeps reverse-chronological order, but the first bullets in your present role should be the work the new employer does: contract volume and turnaround for in-house, matters run and trial roles for a litigation boutique. Paralegals who passed the bar, and professionals entering law from another field, can borrow from the career-change resume approach. Explain the reason for the move in a cover letter; our attorney cover letter examples show how to do it in 2 or 3 sentences.
Attorney resume FAQ
Should I put Esq. after my name on a resume?
No. Esq. is a courtesy title others use when addressing you, and it reads oddly next to your own name. Show your license in the headline instead, such as Litigation Attorney, admitted in Ohio, and list the admission under Certificates.
How do I list my bar admission if I am waiting for results?
Write the exam, the state and the date with the words results pending, such as New York Bar Exam, 07/2026, results pending. Use Law Clerk or J.D. in your headline, not Attorney, and update the line the day you are admitted.
How long should an attorney resume be?
1 page for most attorneys in their first 7 to 10 years of practice. 2 pages suit partners, counsel and senior in-house lawyers with many trials, deals or jurisdictions. A full list of matters belongs on a separate deal sheet, not on the resume.
Should I include billable hours on an attorney resume?
Only if the number is strong and the firm you are applying to cares about it, such as a lateral move between big firms. Most hiring partners care more about what you handled than how many hours you billed, so lead with matters and outcomes.
Can I name clients and cases on my resume?
Only when the matter is public record and your firm or client would not object. Otherwise describe each matter by type, court and size, such as a $5M breach of contract action in federal court, which tells a partner the stakes and keeps the client private.
Should I list my law school GPA or class rank?
Yes, in your first few years if it is in the top third or the firm asks for it, since many firms screen new associates on grades. After about 5 years of practice, drop it and keep your degree, honors and any law review role.
Do I list the MPRE on an attorney resume?
Only before you are admitted, when it shows a step toward licensure. NCBE's MPRE is required for admission in every US jurisdiction except Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, so once you hold a bar admission the license line already covers it.
What legal research software should I put on my resume?
List the platforms you have used by name, such as Westlaw, Lexis+, Relativity or Clio, and back each one with a bullet. Match the posting's wording, since a firm on Westlaw Precision may search for that exact name, and only claim a version that existed during the job.
Should an attorney resume include salary expectations?
No. Discuss pay when the employer raises it, usually in the interview. BLS data put the median annual pay for lawyers at $159,670 in May 2025; your offer depends on your market, practice area and whether you join a firm, a company or a public employer.
Next steps
Pick the example that matches your practice area and level, follow its layout, and swap in your own matters, motions, trials or deals. Our resume builder and our resume templates carry these designs. The letter you send alongside should open on the matter you are proudest of.