Law Clerk Resume Examples and Templates for 2023

Law Clerk Text-Only Resume Examples

Years of Experience

Tips for Writing a Better Law Clerk Resume

Openings for law clerk positions are often highly competitive. Upon graduating from law school, many aspiring lawyers spend a number of years working in law clerk positions to gain valuable hands-on experience before taking the bar exam. To separate yourself from the applicant field, you must create a strong resume highlighting the unique aspects of your legal knowledge and capabilities. Below, you’ll find three expert tips to help you craft your law clerk resume and accelerate your job search:

1. Highlight Your Legal Expertise

Prospective employers want to gain a better understanding of your strongest areas of legal expertise. The best way to show this on your resume is by crafting bullet points that emphasize your knowledge of legal concepts. In the example below, the candidate makes a point to highlight their understanding of pretrial motions during a variety of cases, which is essential for success in a law clerk position:

2. Create an Eye-catching Professional Profile

To grab the attention of prospective employers, you’ll need to create a compelling summary at the top of your document that highlights the strongest aspects of your legal experience. If your professional profile is lacking, the rest of your content may fail to garner the attention it deserves. In the example below, the candidate specifically mentions their background working with both lawyers and judges. Law clerks need advanced qualifications to provide direct support to judges, and this experience may help to differentiate the job seeker from the applicant field:

3. Feature Specific Types of Cases

Although you should never disclose confidential details regarding cases while crafting your resume, you can paint a picture of the types of cases you worked on as a law clerk. Talking about your experience is appropriate as long as you aren’t disclosing specific details related to an individual case. Notice how the job seeker mentions that they worked on multi-million-dollar cases without disclosing explicit information regarding any individual clients. This will establish a sense of scope for prospective employers without breaching NDAs:

Key Skills Hiring Managers Look for on Law Clerk Resumes

Most organizations screen candidates using some form of Applicant Tracking System (ATS), even within the legal field. If your resume lacks a certain number of keywords, the automated system may reject your application before it reaches the hiring manager. To prevent this, you’ll need to carefully analyze the job description to identify key terms that the organization is looking for. Below, you’ll find a list of common key skills that you may encounter over the course of your job search:

Common Action Verbs for Law Clerk Resumes

It’s easy to find yourself running short on action verbs during the resume-building process, especially when crafting a document for the legal field. Often there are only certain verbs you can use to accurately convey your daily job responsibilities and career achievements. That said, repeating the same verb throughout your resume might cause your bullet points to appear redundant or stale. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of action verbs you can use to enhance your resume content and secure your next job interview:

How to Align Your Law Clerk Resume With the Job Description

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that the average annual salary for legal clerks was $62,730 in 2021. Because law clerk positions are an important stepping stone on your path to becoming a lawyer, you’ll find no shortage of competition when applying for job opportunities. To differentiate yourself from the crowded field of applicants, you’ll need to align your resume with the job description by incorporating key aspects that match the organization’s needs.

For example, suppose you’re applying for a law clerk position with a law firm that specializes in personal injury or civil law. In that case, you’ll want to highlight your knowledge and background of liability as it pertains to these types of cases. If you’re applying for a position as a judicial law clerk, you may want to highlight any past experience you have interfacing with judges and opposing counsel during trials. By tailoring your resume towards individual job opportunities, you’ll significantly increase your chances of grabbing the attention of prospective employers during the job hunt.