Law School Resume

What makes a great law school resume? Or legal resume in general? Your accomplishments, described in detail.

Never describe the position you held. Instead, explain what you did, specifically, in that role. For example, write “tracked office supply usage with Excel spreadsheets” rather than “managed day- to-day office tasks,” since the latter reads like a vague help-wanted advertisement. If you “organized X club event,” explain how. Organized X event by… publicizing the event on social media? Procuring space? Ordering food? Corresponding with attendees or guest speakers? And how many people attended the event? What was the event budget? If you “wrote 5 blog posts per week,” consider adding an “including…” along with one or two examples.

Although vague, lofty sounding bullet points might sound impressive to you, law school admissions officers and legal employers are decidedly underwhelmed by resumes they can’t understand. A description like “Ideate, spearhead, and assess implementation of various, high- level impact initiatives for external audiences focused on the promotion of evolved governance” will not land you one of those fancy jobs listed in the back of the Economist; it’s just going to confuse people!

In My Formula for A Winning Resume, resume guru Laszlo Bock suggests using the formula “Accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z” when explaining a position.

Most law schools permit applicants to submit a two-page resume, although you should carefully review each school’s application to confirm this. Unlike most employment-oriented resumes, which are tailored to a particular job function, the law school resume is broad, and should include all of your significant, post-high school experience. For this reason, many applicants expand their standard one-page resume to two pages.