Your Law School Resume: Three Critical Guidelines for Success
Table of Contents
- Why Following Resume Instructions Matters in Law School Applications
- How to Handle Employment and Activity Gaps in a Law School Resume
- How to Present Non-Legal Work Experience on Your Law School Resume
1. Why Following Resume Instructions Matters in Law School Applications
As with every aspect of your law school application, you should follow the application instructions explicitly when preparing your resume. If the admissions committee asks you to limit your resume to one page, for example, or to use a certain font size or style, make sure to do exactly that. Disregarding the school’s specifications will not reflect well on you.
As a general rule of thumb, a two-page resume will work for most schools, while some schools have expressed a preference for a one-page resume from KJD (kindergarten-to-JD) applicants.
2. How to Handle Employment and Activity Gaps in a Law School Resume
In your law school application resume, you should generally present your entire professional and extracurricular experience from the beginning of your undergraduate career to the current date. Do not include positions you had in high school. If you are applying to law school directly from college, you might be tempted to mention the wonderful awards you won and the lifeguarding positions you had before college, but fight that impulse.
Include all part-time, full-time, paid, and unpaid endeavors from your first year of college until the point of application. When I reviewed applications, this is what I did: I’d look at the year of graduation and then see what jobs the applicant held after that moment. Then I’d look back to see what the applicant did every summer of college. Remember that if you have an employment gap of more than three months after graduating from college, many schools want you to explain it either in a drop-down box on the application or in an addendum.
3. How to Present Non-Legal Work Experience on Your Law School Resume
Admissions committees are not looking for law-specific work experience only. If you do not have a job as a paralegal, that is okay. I have seen people from all kinds of employment backgrounds admitted to law school and do quite well.
When listing any work experience on your resume, be sure to provide three or four bullet points about your responsibilities in each role. You should also emphasize any leadership roles you have held and highlight jobs and tasks that demonstrate your communication skills.
Sometimes students who worked their way through college with a series of retail and restaurant jobs don’t want to list each one separately, and that’s okay. In those situations, you can list your more professional positions first and then include an entry like this:
Other employment: Worked 20–25 hours/week throughout college: Old Navy, Chipotle, and The Gap.
In addition, many admissions committees like to see a “Personal Interests” resume section where you can include interests and activities that you enjoy in your free time. For example, do you like to learn new languages, run marathons, bake, or play the violin? Let the admissions committee know! Schools are interested in understanding how you balance your life and work. Showing how you spend your time outside of work or school can provide depth and context, thereby enriching your application.
If you’d like to see examples of good law school admissions resumes, check out these sample resumes shared by Harvard Law School.
If you need further guidance on creating a resume for your law school application or the application process in general, schedule your free consultation with an Accepted admissions expert today!
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