Paralegal Resume Templates and Examples for 2024

Paralegal Resume Template Example

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If you’re looking for work as a paralegal, showcase your skills, credentials, and experience in legal roles. The best way to do that is with a well-crafted resume that highlights your qualifications, such as legal research, case file management, and drafting legal documents. This guide provides a step-by-step process for creating your paralegal resume and making the case for yourself as a top-notch candidate.

How To Write a Paralegal Resume

Following a resume template can help you put together a compelling paralegal resume. These are the key sections your resume should include:

• Contact information
• Profile
• Key skills
• Professional experience
• Education and certifications

Contact information

Provide your current contact information so prospective employers can easily reach you. This includes your full name, phone number, email address, city and state, as well as a link to your online professional profile or website (if applicable).

Profile

After your contact information, capture the attention of the reader with a succinct but impactful profile. It should consist of about three sentences overviewing your job history, credentials, relevant skills, and accomplishments as a paralegal. Incorporate keywords from the job posting to demonstrate that your background aligns well with the opportunity you’re seeking.

Key skills

Listing your top skills can help make your resume easily scannable by both human readers and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Include a mix of hard skills, such as legal software, and soft skills, like attention to detail. When possible, add some of the skills the hiring organization is looking for.

Common hard and soft skills for paralegal

Resume writer’s tip: Use descriptive action verbs

Choose impactful verbs for the professional experience section of your paralegal resume to make your resume come to life. Avoid just listing job responsibilities or using first-person language, and instead use action verbs to describe your past experiences. Some strong verbs to consider for a paralegal resume include:

Professional experience

The professional experience section of your resume should provide a history of your employment as a paralegal (and any relevant work prior to that). More importantly, it should create a narrative of how you’ve grown as a professional. For each role, include three to five bullets that showcase any special achievements, the impact you’ve made, as well as your key responsibilities.

Resume writer’s tip: Quantify your experience

Instead of just stating the things you did in your past paralegal roles, include data points and metrics that show the results you achieved and the value you added. This can help potential employers understand the positive impact you can bring to their legal team.

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Finding ways to align your paralegal resume with each job you apply for can improve your chances of standing out from competitors. This is important since the outlook for paralegal jobs is just 4% growth through 2032, which is average. One strategy is to utilize some of the same key phrases used in the job description and shift some of your skills around to match the ones each employer is seeking.

What if you don’t have experience?

Creating a paralegal resume if you haven’t yet worked in the field can be a challenge. However, everyone has to start out, and employers can still determine if you have the skills and knowledge needed based on what you include on your resume. For paralegals, your education, certifications, and training are essential as they show you have the competencies needed for the role. Be sure to highlight any relevant coursework or internships you’ve done as well.

You can also include past jobs even outside of the legal field, focusing on your ability to adapt, work in teams, meet deadlines, and conduct research. These traits are all considered valuable assets within a legal team.

Education and certifications

Include your educational background and certifications from recognized paralegal associations like NALA to prove you have the required credentials to work as a paralegal. Include the titles of your degrees and certificates, along with each institution’s name and the completion date.

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Andrew Stoner

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.