Lawyer Resume

Lawyer resume example for Australia

A lawyer resume should identify your practice area, experience level and actual responsibility on matters. Make your qualifications and admission or practising status clear where relevant to the vacancy. Then show how your work relates to the firm's, organisation's or team's needs.

Illustrative example: The following details are fictional. Use the structure with your own verified experience; do not copy the claims.

Professional profile

Lawyer with experience supporting commercial disputes and preparing research, correspondence and matter documents under partner supervision. Skilled in organising evidence and explaining progress to internal stakeholders. Seeking to contribute to a disputes team with a focus on clear advice and disciplined matter management.

Legal experience: Lawyer, [Firm], [dates]

• Prepared a chronology and indexed supporting documents for a commercial dispute, helping the supervising lawyer identify gaps before a case conference.
• Researched a defined legal issue, summarised the relevant authorities and presented the findings to the partner for review.
• Drafted client correspondence for approval, setting out requested documents and agreed next steps in plain language.
• Maintained a matter deadline register and followed up outstanding inputs with the responsible team members.

Credentials

[Degree and institution, completion date]. [Admission jurisdiction and date, if applicable]. [Accurate practising status, if relevant]. List pending study or applications as pending and check the vacancy's requirements directly.

How to describe legal matters on your CV

Use this sequence: matter context → your responsibility → work performed → supported outcome or current stage. A reader needs to distinguish between a matter you led, work you completed under supervision and a team result.

For example: “Assisted the supervising solicitor with [type of matter] by [specific research, drafting or coordination work], enabling [verified next step].” If the matter is ongoing, say so. You do not need to invent a settlement result to demonstrate useful work.

Remove confidential client names, privileged material and restricted commercial details. Use a level of description you are authorised to share. A resume should not become a case file; a de-identified description of your contribution is often enough.

Choose the emphasis for the legal role

• Private practice: relevant practice area, types of matters, drafting, research and client responsibilities.
• In-house: how your work supported internal stakeholders and business decisions, within your actual remit.
• Government or community roles: evidence matching the role's requirements, stakeholder context and service responsibilities.
• Senior roles: supervision, matter leadership and practice development where supported by your record.

Keep specialist experience specific. Do not add unrelated areas of law simply to create a longer skills list.

Law graduate resume: what if you have limited experience?

Lead with your actual qualification status and relevant clerkships, placements, research, mooting or community work. Explain your own contribution to a group project. Keep non-legal employment in a separate section and choose examples of judgement, accuracy or communication that relate to the vacancy.

Use your real title. A student placement should not be presented as work performed as an admitted lawyer. Include the status and dates of practical training where relevant, without implying completion before it has occurred.

Final legal CV checks

Use reverse chronological experience, consistent dates and concise matter examples. Match the employer's document and length instructions. Check every credential and outcome, confirm any referee's permission before sharing their details, and remove information you cannot disclose. For a general starting point, the Burgess Paluch legal CV example illustrates how practice context and matter responsibilities can be organised.

Professional lawyer resume writing

Bring your current resume, the job advertisement and examples of work you can discuss. We can help select relevant evidence and explain it clearly. Choose an option using the package selector on this page, or compare resume writing packages. Check the selected package's inclusions before ordering.

If you want feedback on your existing document first, request a free resume review.