Resume template · Updated October 2026
Lawyer resume template
Short answer
Henrietta suits a lawyer: a conventional business layout that prints education straight after experience, so the J.D. sits near the top where legal readers look for it. The fictional sample is in-house corporate counsel at a software company who spent four years as a corporate associate at a law firm. Bar admissions print at the end as a custom list, so the summary states the admission too.
Download the lawyer sample
Nathan is a fictional corporate counsel. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Henrietta suits a lawyer resume
Henrietta is the conventional business layout legal employers expect, and it prints education directly after experience, so your law school and honors are not pushed below a skills list. Legal readers look for the law school early, and this order puts it there. Its hairline rules and black-and-grey type keep a dense, text-heavy page easy to read.
Second choice: Catalyst. Catalyst opens on experience with no summary, a fit for a senior lawyer whose current role and matters make the case alone.
What goes in each section, in Henrietta's order
Henrietta prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Your practice area, years since admission, where you work (firm or in-house, and the industry) and your bar admission. A general counsel or hiring partner places you from those four facts.
- Work Experience. Matters and scope, not tasks: types and volume of agreements, deal sizes, cases you can describe publicly, budgets you manage. In-house, show business effect (faster contract cycle, clearer risk calls); at a firm, show the matters and your role in them.
- Education. J.D. with school, year, honors and any law review or journal role, then your undergraduate degree. Henrietta prints this right after experience, which is where legal readers expect it.
- Skills. Practice areas and legal skills (commercial contracting, privacy, negotiation, diligence), then tools such as contract management software and research databases. The grid shows no labels, so lead with your core area.
- Bar admissions. A "Bar admissions" list with each jurisdiction and year, plus federal courts if relevant. It prints at the end in Henrietta, which is why the sample repeats the main admission in its summary.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Nathan Brooks
Corporate Counsel, Commercial and Privacy
Minneapolis, MN | nathan.brooks@example.com | (612) 555-0193 | linkedin.com/in/sample-nathan-brooks
Corporate counsel at a software company, admitted in Minnesota in 2018, handling commercial contracts, privacy and product questions for sales, procurement and engineering. Four years as a corporate associate before moving in-house, with diligence and drafting experience on mid-market acquisitions.
Experience
Corporate Counsel, Gunflint Software, Minneapolis, MN (08/2022 to Present)
- Negotiate about 150 commercial agreements a year, including customer subscriptions, vendor contracts and data processing agreements.
- Built a contract playbook and a self-serve NDA process for sales; median time to signature for standard deals fell from 19 days to 8.
- Advise product and engineering on privacy reviews of new features and maintain the company's records of processing.
- Manage outside counsel for employment and IP matters within an annual budget of about $600K.
Corporate Associate, Halvorsen Prieto LLP, Minneapolis, MN (09/2018 to 07/2022)
- Worked on 12 acquisitions and investments from $15M to $250M, leading diligence workstreams and drafting disclosure schedules and ancillary documents.
- Drafted commercial agreements and board consents for emerging company clients.
- Supervised two summer associates on diligence reviews each year.
Bar admissions
- Minnesota, 2018
- U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, 2019
Education
Juris Doctor (J.D.), cum laude, Upper Midwest School of Law (05/2018). Articles Editor, Law Review
BA, Economics, Lake Superior Ridge College (05/2015)
Skills
Commercial contracting, Privacy and data protection, Negotiation, M&A due diligence, Corporate governance, Risk assessment, Ironclad, Westlaw, DocuSign, Microsoft Word, Plain-language advice, Cross-team partnership
How to make the sample yours
State your admission up front
Replace the Minnesota admission with your own jurisdictions, in both the summary and the bar admissions list. A reader who has to hunt for it may assume it is missing.
Turn contracts into numbers
Agreement types and volumes, deal values or cycle times show scale better than "drafted and negotiated agreements".
Keep matters anonymous unless public
Describe deals and cases by type and size. Name a matter only if it is public and your role in it is on the record, and check your employer's confidentiality rules first.
Show the move from firm to in-house
If you went in-house, keep two or three firm bullets that show the training you bring (diligence, drafting, deal volume) and let the in-house role lead.
Trim law school detail as you gain years
Moot court, clinics and summer associate roles help in the first few years; after that, keep honors and journal roles and cut the rest.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- attorney
- corporate counsel
- commercial contracts
- contract negotiation
- SaaS agreements
- data processing agreements
- privacy compliance
- mergers and acquisitions
- due diligence
- outside counsel management
- risk assessment
- legal research
- bar admission
- Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Mistakes to avoid
- Burying your bar admission in a list at the bottom and nowhere else.
- Naming clients or confidential deals.
- A list of every law school course once you have several years of practice.
- Claiming sole credit for team matters; say "on a team of three" or "second chair" where true.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 5 of 5 | 7 of 7 |
Frequently asked questions
Where do bar admissions go on a lawyer resume?
In their own short list with jurisdiction and year, and in the summary for your main admission. Henrietta prints the list at the end of the page, so the summary line makes sure nobody misses it.
Should a lawyer resume include a deal or case list?
For transactional and litigation lawyers with several years of practice, a separate deal or case sheet keeps the resume to one or two pages. On the resume itself, summarize volume and a few representative matters by type and size.
How do I move from a law firm to an in-house counsel role?
Translate firm work into business terms: the agreements you can negotiate without supervision, the industries you know, the speed and judgment you bring. Keep the firm job, but let your most business-facing work lead.
Should I include class rank, honors or law review?
Honors and journal roles, yes, especially in your first several years. Class rank is worth including when it is strong or the employer asks for it; otherwise leave it out.
Can a lawyer resume be two pages?
Yes, for senior lawyers with long matter histories. Keep the current role, education and admissions on page one, and move representative matters to page two or a separate list.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Henrietta PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 5 section headings and all 7 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
Guides and templates for this resume
More in resume templates by job title.