Law Student Resume Example

A law student resume follows conventions recruiters enforce strictly: one page, education first, legal experience next. Firms and judges read hundreds during on-campus interviewing and discard the odd ones. Class rank and journal membership go in the education entry, and the layout stays conservative, with no color or photo.

The Sample resume is a second-year student in Richmond applying for 2L summer associate positions and a judicial internship. Her legal experience is a 1L summer at a legal aid office, a housing clinic where she represents tenants under a student practice rule, and a research assistant position with a professor. Each bullet names a legal task (drafted, argued, researched, negotiated) and its outcome, with numbers where a student can honestly have them.

First-year students with no legal experience yet should read the college student example for how to present pre-law work and campus roles, and the paralegal example if they worked in a firm before school. The attorney example shows what the page looks like after the bar. The Launch template keeps a legal resume in the plain format recruiters expect.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample resume are fictional.

Law Student sample resume

Meredith Ashworth

JD Candidate, May 2027 | Law Review Associate Editor | Housing Clinic Student Attorney

Richmond, VAmeredith.ashworth@example.com(804) 555-0126

Summary

Second-year law student at James River School of Law (JD expected May 2027, top 15 percent of the class after 1L) and associate editor of the law review. Spent the 1L summer at a legal aid office drafting pleadings and representing clients at administrative hearings, and currently represents tenants in eviction defense through the school's housing clinic under a supervised student practice certificate. Interested in commercial litigation and seeking a 2L summer associate position with a litigation practice.

Experience

Student Attorney, Housing Law Clinic, James River School of Law

– Present

Richmond, VA

  • Represent six tenant clients in unlawful detainer proceedings under faculty supervision, handling client interviews, discovery requests and settlement negotiations with landlords' counsel.
  • Argued a motion to dismiss for defective notice in general district court and obtained dismissal; two other cases settled with rent abatements and sealed records.
  • Drafted a 14-page practice guide on the state's new notice requirements that the clinic now gives every incoming student.
Summer Law Clerk, Pamunkey Valley Legal Aid

–

Richmond, VA

  • Drafted complaints, answers, protective order petitions and discovery for 22 client matters in family, housing and consumer law under two staff attorneys.
  • Represented eleven clients at unemployment insurance appeal hearings as a qualified representative, winning benefits in eight.
  • Researched and wrote a 20-page memorandum on wage garnishment exemptions that the office used to challenge three garnishments.
  • Staffed the walk-in intake desk one day a week, screening about 15 applicants per day for eligibility and conflicts.
Research Assistant to Professor of Civil Procedure, James River School of Law

–

Richmond, VA

  • Compiled and summarized 60 federal appellate decisions on personal jurisdiction over online sellers for a law review article.
  • Cite-checked the article's 240 footnotes against the Bluebook and flagged nine substantive errors before submission.

Education

Juris Doctor (expected May 2027)

James River School of Law, Richmond, VA

GPA 3.72, top 15 percent after first year. James River Law Review, Associate Editor. Moot Court Board; quarterfinalist, intramural appellate advocacy competition. CALI Award in Contracts. Coursework: Evidence, Business Associations, Federal Courts, Trial Advocacy.

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude

Blue Ridge Commonwealth University, Harrisonburg, VA

Phi Beta Kappa. Senior thesis on state preemption of local housing ordinances.

Skills

  • Legal research (Westlaw, Lexis)
  • Bluebook citation
  • Pleading and motion drafting
  • Client interviewing and counseling
  • Administrative hearing advocacy
  • Oral argument
  • Discovery drafting
  • Legal memoranda
  • Negotiation
  • Case management software (Clio)
  • Document review
  • French (reading proficiency)

Certifications

  • Student Practice Certificate (clinic), Supreme Court of Virginia,
  • Westlaw Precision Certification, Thomson Reuters,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each posting in about two minutes.

Use this example

Templates for the law student resume

All templates

How the resume changes with experience

The same law student resume, written at three levels: a summary and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first role in the title

First-year law student in the fall semester, applying for 1L summer positions with public interest offices and judicial internships, with two years as a legislative aide before law school.

  • Drafted constituent correspondence and bill summaries for a state delegate's office, about 30 pieces a week, for two sessions of the General Assembly.
  • Completed the legal research and writing course's first closed memo in the top of the section.
  • Applied to legal aid and a judicial internship for 1L summer rather than waiting on firm programs that rarely take first-years.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Second-year law student in the top 15 percent, law review associate editor and housing clinic student attorney with a legal aid summer behind her, interviewing for 2L summer associate positions in litigation.

  • Represented eleven clients at unemployment appeal hearings and won benefits in eight.
  • Obtained dismissal of an eviction case by arguing a defective-notice motion in court.
  • Chose a legal aid 1L summer over an unpaid firm shadowing program because it meant standing up in hearings.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programs

Third-year law student with a completed summer associate program and a return offer, a published law review note and a year as a clinic student attorney, sitting for the July bar examination and starting as a litigation associate in September.

  • Drafted a summary judgment brief and a deposition outline during the summer associate program; the brief was filed with minor edits.
  • Published a law review note on notice requirements in eviction proceedings that a state legislative committee cited in a hearing.
  • Accepted the return offer at a mid-sized litigation firm over a larger firm's transactional offer to stay in court work.

Skills to put on the law student resume

Hard skills

Legal research and writing
Every employer tests it through your writing sample, and a resume that names memoranda and their outcomes gets the sample read.
Drafting pleadings and motions
Summer associates and clerks are hired to draft, and bullets that count the complaints and motions you have written prove you can.
Hearing and courtroom experience
Standing up for a client, even in an administrative hearing, separates students who have practiced from those who have only studied.
Bluebook and cite-checking
Journal work and research assistant positions show you can be trusted with the detail work that firms give first-year associates.
Class rank and journal membership
Firms screen on them during on-campus interviewing; if you have them, they belong in the first lines of education.
Westlaw and Lexis certifications
They are small, but they tell a hiring partner you will not bill client time learning the research platform.

Soft skills

Judgment
Choosing which argument to make and when to settle is what lawyers do; a bullet about a decision shows you have started.
Writing discipline
Short, precise bullets on the resume are themselves evidence of the writing recruiters are hiring for.
Client composure
Legal aid and clinic clients are often in crisis, and employers want to know you have sat across from one.
Reliability under deadline
Filing deadlines do not move, and a record of meeting them in a clinic matters more than any adjective.

Mistakes that cost law student interviews

  1. Breaking the one-page rule

    Legal recruiters expect one page until you have practiced for several years. Cut undergraduate activities, high school items and non-legal jobs to a line each before anything legal goes.

  2. Hiding class rank or leaving the reader to guess

    If your school ranks and your rank is good, state it; if it does not rank, say so in parentheses after the GPA. A missing rank on a resume from a ranking school reads as a weak one.

  3. Vague clinic and summer bullets

    Assisted attorneys with various legal matters wastes the most valuable lines on the page. Name the pleadings, the hearings, the research questions and what happened to each.

  4. Decorative formatting

    Color, icons, photos and two-column layouts mark a resume as inexperienced in legal hiring. Use one typeface, bold for employers and titles, and consistent dates aligned right.

  5. Mislabeling clinic work as employment

    Clinic representation is legal experience, but list it as a clinic with the supervising faculty's role implied, not as a job at a firm. Interviewers will ask about supervision, and accuracy matters in this profession.

  6. Listing interests that invite trouble

    An interests line is fine and often starts conversations, but keep it specific and harmless: a sport, an instrument, a cuisine. Political or religious causes go only where they are the point of the application.

Questions about the law student resume

What does a 1L resume look like with no legal experience?

Education first with your law school, expected date and any first-semester grades or awards once released, then your undergraduate degree with honors. Experience is your pre-law work, written to stress research, writing, deadlines and responsibility. Add campus roles and languages. Employers hiring 1Ls expect exactly this.

Do I put law review or moot court under education or activities?

Under the law school entry, directly after the GPA and rank. Recruiters look for them there, and separating them into an activities section pushes them below the fold.

How do I describe clinic work on a law student resume?

As an experience entry titled Student Attorney or Student Advocate with the clinic name, then bullets on the clients, the filings, the hearings and the results. Mention the practice rule or certificate you worked under in certifications.

What should change between a firm application and a judicial internship application?

The summary and the order of bullets. Judges want research, writing and cite-checking first; firms want drafting, client work and any exposure to their practice area. Keep the same one page and swap the emphasis.

Should I include my LSAT score or undergraduate GPA?

Not the LSAT; employers do not ask for it. Include the undergraduate GPA and honors, since they are part of the academic record firms review, unless the GPA is weak and the honors are absent.

How far ahead of on-campus interviewing should the resume be ready?

Have it finished before 1L grades come out so you can add the rank and submit the moment bidding opens; many schools now run OCI in the summer before 2L. Ask the career office to review it; they know what local employers reject.

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