How should lawyers update their resumés?
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Legal resumés once emphasized pedigree, practice area and firm affiliation.
But in this evolving legal landscape driven by hybrid work, tech innovations and an increasing nod to work-life balance, traditional legal resumés have changed as well. Gone are the days when law schools and firm names reigned supreme. Today’s resumés are longer, richer in detail and strategically tailored to highlight practical expertise, adaptability and achievements.
Resumés across all industries now have an average length of 503 words, which is equivalent to nearly two pages, according to a 2023 LiveCareer study of 50,000 resumés created from 2018 to 2023. Resumés in 2018 had an average of 312 words, the study finds. And 17% of those 2023 resumés contained additional accomplishments, compared with just 9% of the 2018 resumés.
Before you apply for your next job, make sure your resumé reflects these changes.
Resumé writing in the legal field still involves highlighting the breadth of your practice and the depth of your hands-on roles, says Jason Keller, a managing director in Major, Lindsey & Africa’s Associate Practice Group and based in Chicago. Firms want to know what you’ve done, where you’ve done it and how your experience compares with the attorneys already on their team.
So while many aspects of the resumé have changed recently, some things have stayed the same: Academic credentials, bar admissions and relevant certifications should be prominently displayed, says Keisha Jeffries, the manager of lateral recruiting at Moore & Van Allen.
Law school grades and GPA still matter, even if you’re a senior attorney, Keller says. Include your GPA if it’s 3.5 or higher, he suggests. While academic performance alone won’t land you a job, a strong GPA will be an asset long after graduation.
The first page should convey a branding statement, a professional summary, professional experience, education/bar admissions, board leadership/affiliations and publications/speaking engagements, says Wendi Weiner, an attorney and legal resumé writer for The Writing Guru in Miami.
To ensure readability on digital screens, consider switching from Times New Roman (a standard for printed resumés) to Calibri or Helvetica: Most resumés are read on a digital device, and Times New Roman can be a little harder to read on a screen, says Kelly Rittenberry Culhane, the strategic growth officer and co-founder and managing partner of CM Law in Dallas.
Be aware that your resumé should be keyword-optimized and tailored to get through the first digital gatekeeper, says Kush Bambrah, the director of recruitment at On Call Counsel, a legal staffing solutions company based in New York City. Thanks to technology and applicant tracking systems, your resumé will likely be ranked based on keyword usage. In fact, a Harvard Business School study found that more than 90% of employers it surveyed use one of these systems to initially filter middle- and high-skills candidates. According to Bambrah, it’s very important to add as many skills, degrees and attributes as possible, as many companies exclude potential candidates from consideration because they don’t have certain key attributes that are singled out in their search.
“So if we’re searching for someone with immigration experience, and your resumé says ‘immigration’ five times, you’re going to rank higher than someone who only mentioned it once or not at all,” Bambrah says. “It’s all about those magic words.”
Atlanta-based Logan Ide, a partner at Latitude Legal who reviews hundreds of attorney resumés weekly, suggests being as detailed as possible in your work history section. Instead of just writing something like “drafted, negotiated and reviewed commercial contracts,” Ide says you should include more information, such as if they “were outbound sales agreements or inbound vendor agreements” or if they were “technology agreements, large and small.”
Most importantly, applicants should keep all of this information on the first page. “The rule of thumb is, you want that first page of your resumé to really convey the important things—the branding statement and the professional summary must showcase your value,” Weiner says. “Think of it as the summary you read on the back of the book.”
Practice makes perfect
A key component is your billable hours and practice focus, says Olympia LaRose, a former consultant and resumé writer for Monster who is now the CEO at Piahrose, a legal talent acquisition company in Atlanta. LaRose suggests listing three to five litigation focuses as well as work you’ve done with Fortune 500 public companies and Am Law 100 firms. This will help recruiters, managing attorneys and hiring managers identify what practice area may complement their litigation experience.
You also should establish credibility by discreetly incorporating metrics such as promotions, client portfolios, case dismissals, co-counsel collaborations and settlement negotiations, she adds.
Weiner’s legal resumés tend to be two pages, but sometimes she adds a third that functions as an addendum to the resumé with a deal/transaction sheet, a list of representative engagements and additional speaking engagements and publications.
Finally, hobbies and skill sets should appear at the end of your resumé. These could be anything from speaking multiple languages to skydiving, marathon running or playing the violin.
Sometimes, they can serve as a good way to make someone stand out—even in ways they might never have imagined. For instance, Culhane recently viewed a resumé that included Olympic-level weightlifting.
“It was one of the first things I shared with the leadership team after our call,” Culhane says. “That indicates discipline and strategic thinking.”
This story was originally published in the February-March 2025 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: “Time to Update: How should lawyers tailor their resumés in a changing landscape?”
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