3 Best Attorney Resume Examples and Templates for 2026
5 Best Lawyer Resume Examples and Templates for 2026
By Andrew Stoner
, Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach
Andrew Stoner
Last Updated:
June 19, 2026
Tip !
Hiring partners want to see bar admissions, practice area, and representative matters on the first page, because that tells them within a minute whether the candidate can staff the matters already on the docket.
Featured Example
Why this resume works
- Trial work, not just office work: The opening bullet names a real trial, a real court, and what she actually drafted, which separates her from associates who only list ‘assisted with litigation.’
- Numbers that match the job: Twelve depositions, eight granted motions, and a 20-matter caseload are the metrics partners actually ask about in lateral interviews.
- Clerkship placed where it belongs: Listing the federal clerkship under Experience, with the judge’s name and what she drafted, signals research and writing strength without padding.
Junior Associate Example
The junior associate profile covers law school graduates through year three at a firm or in-house role. This resume needs to prove drafting range, supervised matter ownership, and bar status, with judicial clerkships or law journal credit surfaced early.
Why this resume works
- Real deal exposure, sized honestly: A first-year shouldn’t claim to have led an M&A deal, and this resume doesn’t, but ‘180+ target agreements’ shows real work.
- Summer history kept short: The summer associate block is three bullets, not five, which leaves room for the current role to carry the weight.
- Pro bono shown as a case, not a club: Naming an asylum case from intake through hearing prep is more credible than listing ‘pro bono volunteer.
Senior Associate Example
The senior associate profile covers years four through seven, when origination potential and matter leadership start to matter. The resume needs to prove deal or trial ownership, supervisory work over juniors, and a defined practice area with representative client matters.
Why this resume works
- USPTO bar is front and center: Patent registration is the credential that decides who gets considered for these roles, so it belongs in Skills, not buried below.
- Wins are claim by claim, not vague: Favorable construction ‘on three of five disputed terms’ is the kind of specificity IP partners trust.
- Two firms, two jurisdictions: Showing N.D. Cal. and Colorado work signals she can move between patent local rule regimes, which matters for lateral hires.
Counsel Example
The counsel profile covers attorneys with deep subject matter expertise who lead matters without a partnership track. The resume needs to prove specialized authority, repeat client relationships, and the kind of bet-the-company work that justifies the title outside the equity ladder.
Why this resume works
- Penalty reduction shown in dollars: Going from $2.7M to $410K is the kind of enforcement result general counsel remember when they pick outside firms.
- Owns clients, not just matters: Counsel-level lawyers are judged on client relationships, and ‘day-to-day point of contact for three operating clients’ makes that explicit.
- Built a practice subgroup: Starting and leading the pipeline safety subgroup signals partnership-track behavior without claiming the title.
Partner Example
The partner profile covers attorneys with a book of business, origination credit, and firm management responsibility. The resume needs to prove portable revenue, client roster depth, and leadership roles on practice group or firm committees.
Why this resume works
- Book of business is named, not implied: Stating roughly $4.6M in annual billings and naming the client count is the single most important number on a partner resume.
- Practice group growth tied to her tenure: Linking 38% revenue growth to her time as co-chair shows leadership, not just longevity.
- Recognition is current and ranked: Chambers Band 2 with dated years and Best Lawyers since 2019 confirms market reputation in a way self-description can’t.
Text Version Lawyer
Jordan Mikhail Petersen
Seattle, WA | (206) 555-0138 | [email protected] | linkedin.com/in/jordanpetersen
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Commercial litigation and white collar attorney with nine years of experience defending technology and financial services clients in federal regulatory investigations, civil litigation, and internal investigations. Lead author on dispositive briefing in 20+ matters and second-chair experience in two federal jury trials. Comfortable as the day-to-day client contact on multi-year matters involving the SEC, DOJ, and state attorneys general.
EXPERIENCE
Senior Associate, Litigation & Investigations
Kessler Hwang & Romero LLP | Seattle, WA | 2021-Present
- Serve as senior associate on an SEC investigation of a publicly traded fintech client, managing a six-attorney document review team and coordinating with two e-discovery vendors.
- Drafted Wells submission that resulted in the staff declining to recommend enforcement against two of three individual respondents.
- Lead associate on a putative consumer class action under Washington’s CPA, briefing motions to dismiss and to strike class allegations.
- Took 11 fact depositions in the past 18 months across securities and consumer protection matters.
- Built the firm’s internal investigations playbook, now used as the starting point for new matters across three offices.
Associate, White Collar Defense
Aldridge Renton PLLC | Washington, DC | 2018-2021
- Defended individual executives in DOJ FCPA investigations involving operations in Brazil and Indonesia.
- Conducted approximately 40 witness interviews across three internal investigations, including in-country interviews requiring translators.
- Drafted privilege logs and production cover letters covering review populations exceeding 1.2 million documents.
- Co-authored an FCPA Resource Guide update circulated to firm clients in 2020.
Associate, General Litigation
Aldridge Renton PLLC | Washington, DC | 2016-2018
- Drafted answers, motions to dismiss, and discovery responses across commercial contract, trademark, and employment matters.
- Second-chaired a two-week federal jury trial on a contract and unfair competition dispute; jury returned defense verdict on the unfair competition claim.
- Managed deposition logistics and witness preparation for seven fact and expert witnesses.
- Selected as one of four associates for the firm’s trial advocacy program with NITA faculty.
Judicial Law Clerk
Hon. Adelaide Quinn, U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon | Portland, OR | 2015-2016
- Drafted bench memoranda and proposed orders on dispositive motions, discovery disputes, and sentencing.
- Reviewed roughly 110 civil and criminal filings during the clerkship year.
- Assisted with opinion drafting in two published decisions, including a closely watched employment discrimination matter.
EDUCATION
- J.D., Stanford Law School, 2015 (Stanford Law Review, Senior Editor)
- B.A., Government, Cornell University, 2012, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
BAR ADMISSIONS & COURTS
- Washington (2021), District of Columbia (2016), New York (2017, inactive)
- U.S. District Courts: W.D. Wash., D.D.C., S.D.N.Y.
- U.S. Court of Appeals: Ninth Circuit, D.C. Circuit
PRO BONO & COMMUNITY
- Represented three asylum seekers from intake through merits hearings; two grants of asylum.
- Volunteer attorney, King County Bar Association Housing Justice Project
- Board member, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Young Professionals Council (2022-present)
SKILLS
- Practice areas: SEC enforcement, DOJ investigations, FCPA, commercial litigation, consumer class actions
- Tools: Relativity, Everlaw, TextMap, Lex Machina, LiveNote
- Languages: Norwegian (conversational), Spanish (reading proficiency)
- Speaking: panelist, PLI Securities Enforcement Forum (2023)
Use this in our builder
Copied
How to Write a Lawyer Resume
01 Open with the metric a hiring partner would size you up by
Lead your summary with deal size, verdict value, or matter count, not years of practice. A partner reading the top three lines wants to know what you can staff on Monday.
Name your practice area, the forums you appear in, and the largest matter you owned. A senior litigator might lead with two federal trials and twelve dispositive motions filed last year. A corporate associate might lead with a $180 million asset purchase as lead drafter.
02 Quantify deals, matters, and outcomes
Most strong lawyer bullets carry a number. Deal value, settlement amount, hours billed against a matter budget, or motions filed all read as evidence the work was real.
Bullets without a number tend to read as duties. Replace ‘assisted with discovery’ with ‘managed document review across 1.2 million records on a $40 million breach of contract matter.’ For transactional work, name the deal size, counterparty type, and your specific role.
03 Group your work by practice area
Cluster matters under three to five practice subheads inside each role: M&A, securities, commercial litigation, regulatory, or whatever fits your book.
Within each subhead, list two to three representative matters as bullets. Name the client type, deal or claim size, opposing counsel where notable, and what you drafted, negotiated, or argued. This is the structure Stanford and Berkeley lateral applicants use, and it scans faster than chronological duty lists.
04 Place bar admissions and credentials on page one
Put a bar admissions block under your contact line or directly beneath your summary. List each jurisdiction and year admitted, then any federal court admissions.
Do not list your bar number on the resume itself, save that for the application form. Add your J.D., honors like cum laude or Order of the Coif, and law review or moot court below the experience section. CLE concentrations and specialty certifications go in a separate credentials block.
05 Cut what no longer earns its space
Senior lawyers carry too much history. Drop pre-law jobs, undergraduate GPA, and any matter older than ten years that you would not raise in an interview.
Cut LSAT scores, high school activities, and generic skills like ‘legal research.’ Trim summer associate positions once you are five years out. Keep clerkships forever, keep law review forever, and keep the matters that define your reputation.
Most Popular Skills on Lawyer Resumes for 2026
The skills below come from lawyer resumes our users built on ResumeTemplates.com. Managing partners and legal recruiters scan hundreds of resumes a hiring cycle, and these are the terms that show up most often. Hard skills like Westlaw, e-discovery, and contract drafting get parsed by ATS filters first.
Soft skills like client counseling earn their place only when a bullet backs them with a matter. Match the list against the posting, then make sure every soft skill you claim has a deal or case behind it.
| Soft Skills | % of resumes with this skill |
|---|---|
| Persuasive communication | 68% |
| Attention to detail | 53% |
| Negotiation | 46% |
| Composure under pressure | 37% |
| Ethical judgment | 33% |
And here are the top hard skills showing up most often.
| Hard Skills | % of resumes with this skill |
|---|---|
| Legal research analysis | 78% |
| Legal document drafting | 67% |
| Contract drafting review | 49% |
| Litigation case management | 35% |
| Regulatory compliance | 32% |
Based on data from thousands of lawyers’ resumes built on ResumeTemplates.com, May 2026.
Must Have on a Lawyer Resume
These are the credentials, software, and compliance signals hiring teams look for when scanning a lawyer resume.
Niche Keywords for ATS Checkers
Recruiters and ATS filters search by practice area first, then by tool and credential. Group keywords by the subspecialty you target so the parser reads them in cluster.
| Niche | Keywords ATS scans for |
|---|---|
| Corporate and transactional | M&A due diligence, asset purchase agreement, securities filings, contract negotiation |
| Litigation and trial | motion to dismiss, summary judgment briefing, deposition preparation, trial advocacy |
| Intellectual property | patent prosecution, trademark opposition, USPTO filings, IP licensing |
| Regulatory and compliance | SEC enforcement, HIPAA compliance, FCPA investigations, internal investigations |
| In-house and general counsel | commercial contracts, outside counsel management, board reporting, employment matters |
AI Skills to Add
What hiring partners expect on a lawyer’s resume has shifted. A blanket ‘no AI use’ stance now reads as out of step with billable efficiency targets, while an honest workflow noting the tools you use and how you verify citations reads as current. The list below names what to add.
What AI is actually changing for this role
Legal research
Westlaw Precision and Lexis+ AI now front-load case summaries, so associates are expected to validate cited holdings against the underlying opinions.
Document review
Relativity aiR and similar tools surface privileged and responsive documents faster, shifting associate work toward quality control and review protocol design.
Contract drafting
Tools like Harvey and Spellbook generate first drafts of NDAs and service agreements, with attorney redlining and negotiation as the billable layer.
Brief and memo drafting
Generative tools produce outlines and case string cites that attorneys verify, with the rule against fictitious citations enforced under Rule 11.
AI tools to name
-
Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel: Used for AI-assisted case research, brief drafting, and deposition preparation with built-in citation checking.
-
Harvey: Used in Big Law and in-house teams for contract review, M&A diligence summaries, and regulatory question answering.
How to phrase AI on your resume
Do
- Used Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel to draft initial research memos on Article III standing, cut research time on a 40-hour matter to 18 hours while verifying every cited holding.
- Built a Relativity aiR review protocol for a 600,000-document production, supervised a team of six reviewers, and reduced second-level review by 32 percent.
Skip
- Leveraged AI to revolutionize legal research workflows.
- AI-powered attorney with deep ChatGPT expertise.
How to Format Bar Admissions on a Lawyer Resume
Bar admissions are the first credential a hiring partner verifies. Place a dedicated Bar Admissions block directly beneath your contact line or summary, before education and experience.
Bar Admissions Formatting Scenarios
List each jurisdiction by state, followed by the year admitted. Add federal court admissions on separate lines, naming the specific district or circuit.
If you are admitted in good standing, the phrase ‘in good standing’ is optional. Most recruiters assume current standing unless you flag otherwise. Do not list your bar registration number on the resume, that detail belongs on the application form or background check.
- Single state admission: ‘New York, admitted 2022’
- Multi-state admission: ‘New York, admitted 2022; New Jersey, admitted 2023’
- Federal court: ‘U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, admitted 2023’
- Pending admission: ‘California, bar exam taken July 2026, results pending’
- Inactive status: ‘Illinois, admitted 2015 (inactive)’
- Foreign-trained attorney: ‘England and Wales, solicitor admitted 2018; New York, admitted 2024 (LL.M. pathway)’
Law Credentials That Get You the Job
Beyond bar admission, the credentials below tell hiring partners which substantive areas you can staff and which compliance tracks you can lead. List the issuing body and the year earned for each, and keep CLE concentrations grouped under a single line rather than itemized.
-
Board Certification in a Specialty (state bar): Available in fields like civil trial, family law, or estate planning through state bar boards. Signals depth in a defined practice area.
-
Certified Information Privacy Professional (IAPP CIPP/US or CIPP/E): Privacy and data protection counsel use this to signal substantive GDPR or U.S. privacy law fluency on regulatory matters.
-
LL.M. in Taxation, IP, or Securities: List under education with the conferring school and year. Reads as commitment to a specialty track for tax, patent, or securities work.
-
Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE): White collar, internal investigations, and compliance attorneys use the CFE to signal forensic accounting and investigation training.
Latest BLS Statistics for Lawyers
The 90th-percentile lawyer out-earns the median by a wide margin, which tells you the legal market rewards practice area, client roster, and origination credit more than years at the bar. Big Law associates, in-house GCs at public companies, and equity partners cluster at the top band, while solo and small-firm general practice anchors the middle.
Lead the resume with the practice area, client tier, and matter size the high band charges for, not your years admitted.
Where you stand
Entry tier
$72,780–$151,160 At the entry tier, lead with your J.D., bar admissions, and any clerkship, law review, or moot court credit from school.Mid band
$151,160–$239,200 At the mid band, your resume needs to show owned matters, deal or verdict values, and a defined practice area with representative clients.Top decile
$239,200+ At the top decile, lead with portable book of business, origination credit, named bet-the-company matters, and firm leadership or GC scope.Top-paying states
| # | State | Avg. Annual |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $197,790 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | $179,050 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | $177,210 |
| 4 | New York | $96,580 |
| 5 | Delaware | $172,710 |
| 6 | Colorado | $167,970 |
| 7 | Connecticut | $159,240 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $158,470 |
| 9 | Virginia | $157,980 |
| 10 | Illinois | $157,320 |
Highest-employment states
| # | State | Workers | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 92,580 | $197,790 |
| 2 | New York | 91,440 | $177,210 |
| 3 | Florida | 59,010 | $127,810 |
| 4 | Texas | 54,680 | $133,570 |
| 5 | District of Columbia | 33,430 | $191,880 |
Written by professional resume writers and loved by hiring managers
Resume Templates offers HR approved resume templates to help you create a professional resume in minutes. Choose from several template options and even pre-populate a resume from your profile.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a lawyer resume run three pages?
Yes, once you have a real matter list. Partners, counsel, and senior associates with representative matter sections regularly run two to three pages, and legal recruiters expect it.
Keep page one tight: contact, bar admissions, summary, and current role. Page two and three carry prior firms, representative matters, publications, and bar activities. New graduates and junior associates should still hold to one page.
Should I list my GPA and class rank?
List your GPA only if you graduated within the last three years and it is above 3.5. List class rank only when applying to judicial clerkships, which expect it.
Never list your LSAT score on a lawyer resume. Honors like cum laude, Order of the Coif, and law journal positions carry the academic signal once you are past the third year of practice.
How do I list bar admissions if I am awaiting results?
Write the jurisdiction followed by 'Bar exam taken July 2026, results pending' or 'Admission anticipated November 2026.' Move the line into the regular bar admissions block once you are sworn in.
If you are admitted in one state and sitting for another, list the active admission first, then the pending exam. Do not include your bar number on the resume itself.
How should I list contract or document review work?
Group contract attorney engagements under one header like 'Contract Attorney Engagements' with the staffing agency or firm names beneath. Bullet the substantive work, not the hourly nature of the role.
Name the matter type, document volume reviewed, and review platform used, such as Relativity or Everlaw. Strong bullets read like 'Second-level reviewed 80,000 documents on a multidistrict antitrust matter using Relativity tags and privilege logs.'
What's the best resume template for a lawyer?
For a lawyer, a professional template is the safest pick, because it signals the polish hiring managers in this field expect. An ATS-friendly template is a solid alternative. Whichever you choose, keep the formatting clean and easy to parse: clear section headings, a standard font, and no graphics a parser can choke on.
Related Lawyer Resume Examples
![3 Best Paralegal Resume Examples and Templates for [y]](/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Entry-Level-Paralegal-Resume-Example.x400.pdf.jpeg)
Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach
Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.
