Resume Guide

Introduction to Law School Resumes

A resume is one of the several components that ultimately comprise your applications to law school. When done correctly, your law school resume should showcase your accomplishments, experience, and skills in a way that will stand out to the admissions board.

Most law school applicants already have a resume that they use to apply for work or volunteer positions. It is essential to understand that there are critical differences between this resume and the one you must submit with your law school application. Much like the other components of your application, your resume needs to be designed explicitly for the reader. In this case, you are addressing the admissions boards of the school you are applying to. It would be best if you remembered that the information they’re seeking differs from what a potential employer would be interested in.

Now that you have a better idea of a law school resume and what it needs to communicate, let’s talk about how you can craft a strong one for yourself!

Law School Resume Sections & Content

There is no golden resume template to get you into law school. The key to success is
ensuring your resume is structured in a way that is easy to follow and read. That means
keeping everything neat and separated into clearly labeled sections. Your resume
should include the following sections:

• Contact Information
• Education
• Work Experience (professional experience and volunteer experience)
• Additional Achievements/Information (Such as awards and honors, special
• projects, certifications, skills, interests/activities)

Now, let’s go over what needs to be included in each section. It may seem obvious, but
the truth is that applicants often make mistakes when it comes to the content of their
law school resume. You must carefully decide what to include and, just as importantly,
what you leave out.

Contact Information

This is, without a doubt, the easiest section on your resume. As suggested by the
section’s name, you should keep it simple and provide that they need to contact you.
We’ve provided a basic list of information to include below, but of course, you can
tweak this list for your specific profile.
You should include the following:

• Full name
• City and zip code
• Email address
• Phone number
• Link to LinkedIn profile

Education

Remember that you are applying for an academic program, so your educational background is very important. You should write your education section in reverse chronological order, meaning that the most recent education should be listed first. If you are still completing a degree, you should still list it with your anticipated date of completion.

For every degree, you should have a new entry. Each one should include the name of the degree, the university you attended, your graduation year, your major and minor (when applicable), your GPA (if it is competitive), any honors or significant achievements, key projects, research work, and meaningful coursework.

That said, if you have been working for a significant number of years and have more work experience, then you can opt to keep these entries brief and make your work experience the focus of your resume. In that case, your education entries should only mention the name of your degree, the institution, the year of graduation, your major and minor, and key achievements that highlight the qualities that your chosen law school values.

Work Experience

Often, this is where applicants err by trying to cram in too much information. Depending on your level of experience, this section can take up to 3/4 of your resume, but you need to ensure that it only includes relevant information. You should stick to the following:

• Organization name
• City and name
• Position title
• Experience dates
• Summary of duties

Additional Achievements and Information

This is the section where you get to highlight some things that do not fit into the other categories we’ve discussed. This includes significant extracurricular achievements, relevant skills and certifications, awards and honors, associations/clubs with leadership roles, and interests. If you only have something to add in one of these subcategories, then you can make that your main category and list the relevant information.

You should only include high-stake accomplishments and information relevant to your application, showcasing abilities or qualities that would make you a stronger candidate for law school.

Additional Tips for a Strong Law School Resume

• Do not use abbreviations except the two-letter state abbreviations; GPA (for your undergraduate institution) and academic degrees.
• Do not include an objective or summary statement.
• Do not include “references available on request” or references information on your resume.
• Do not include such personal information as age, marital status, etc.
• Do not include anything in your resume that you would not want to discuss in an interview.
• Remember that a resume is supposed to be a snapshot of your background, so you should try to keep it as compact as possible. Ideally, your law school resume should be a one-page document. That said, if you have a few years of working experience (5 years minimum), you may make it up to two pages long.
• Your document’s margins should be at least one inch, and your line spacing should be either 1.0 or 1.15. Applicants often try to have smaller margins and smaller line spacing to fit more information on one page, which makes your resume look cramped. The presentation of your resume is just as important as the content, so focus on clarity and readability. A neat and clear two-page outline is better than an unprofessional-looking one that fits on one page.
• The optimal font size is generally between 10 and 12 points. You should pick a clean, easy-to-read font like Calibri, Times New Roman, Arial, or Garamond and stick to it throughout the document. We know that there are many prettier fonts, but the last thing you want to do is make the admissions representative squint or read something over again because the font is unclear.