How to write a Law CV

Called a resume in the US and a CV almost everywhere else — the same document, and these are the rules it gets judged by.

The conventions below are the ones this field actually uses. They are what the builder applies when you pick Law / Legal, and what the rating checks a finished CV against.

What it must contain

Leave any of these out and the CV reads as incomplete to someone who hires in this field:

Bar Admission — Bar council, enrolment number and year of admission.
Legal Experience — Practice area, matter type and your actual role in it.
Education

The order to put them in

Order is not cosmetic. What sits at the top is what gets read before someone decides whether to keep reading.

Professional summary
Bar Admission
Legal Experience
Education
Publications
Skills
Achievements
Languages
Certifications

What to put numbers on

The single most common reason a CV in this field reads as weak is that nothing in it is measured. These are the figures that mean something here:

matter value · caseload · success rate · jurisdiction count

Verbs that carry weight

Openers like “responsible for” and “worked on” describe a job description rather than a person. In this field these do the work instead:

Drafted · Advised · Represented · Negotiated · Researched · Filed

Length

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field.

Build a Law CV See a worked example

Free, no account, and nothing is uploaded — the builder runs in your browser and the CV never leaves it.

Common questions

What should a law CV include?

A law CV has to carry bar admission, legal experience and education. The order this field expects is professional summary, bar admission, legal experience and education.

What goes first on a law CV?

The professional summary. That is where this field's convention puts it, and it is what the builder applies when you pick Law.

How long should a law CV be?

1 to 2 pages is normal for this field. Going longer does not add weight; it moves the thing being looked for further down.

Is a law CV the same as a law resume?

For applying to a job, yes - the same document under two names. Resume is the usual word in North America and CV almost everywhere else. The one real exception is the academic CV, which is long-form and lists publications.

Is there a free law CV template?

Yes. ihatejob builds one to this field’s convention for free, with no account and no upload: the section order, the section names and the rating all come from the law pack described on this page. It exports to PDF, Word and plain text.

Related fields

Defence · Government · Social Work