If you’re hoping to secure your next position as a legal executive, then you need to make your case with the recruiter.
To help you do this, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide full of our expert tips and advice.
This includes a legal executive CV example to advise your own.
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Legal Executive CV example
Use this CV example as a guide to formatting and structuring your Legal Executive CV, so that busy recruiters can easily digest your information and determine your suitability for the role.
It also provides some insight into the key skills, experience and qualifications you need to highlight.
Legal Executive CV format and structure
Hiring managers and recruiters are frequently overloaded with applications, and if they can’t identify the relevant information in your CV within a few seconds, your application may be overlooked.
To avoid this, it’s essential to format and structure your CV in a manner that makes it simple to pick out the most important information, even if the reader is in a rush.
Tips for formatting your Legal Executive CV
- Length: If you want to hold the reader’s attention and ensure your CV isn’t yawn-worthy, it’s best to stick to two sides of A4 or less. This is more than enough room to highlight why you’re a good match for the role – anything more can quickly become tedious!
- Readability: Make sure your CV is easy to read and looks professional by applying some simple formatting tricks. Bullet points are great for making large paragraphs more digestible, while formatting your headings with bold or coloured text will help the reader to find the information they need, with speed.
- Design & format: While it’s important that your CV design looks good, it also needs to be functional (which means easy for recruiters to read) Keep the design simple to achieve a good balance between looking good and reading well.
- Photos: Profile photos or aren’t a requirement for most industries, so you don’t need to add one in the UK – but if you do, just make sure it looks professional
Quick tip: Creating a professional CV style can be difficult and time-consuming when using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. To create a winning CV quickly, try our quick-and-easy CV Builder and use one of their eye-catching professional CV templates.
CV structure
When writing your own CV, break up your CV content into the following key sections:
- Name and contact details – Place them at the top of your CV, so that employers can easily get in touch.
- CV profile – A punchy sales pitch of your key experience, skills and achievements to reel readers in.
- Core skills section – A bullet-pointed snapshot of your abilities.
- Work experience – A well-structured list of your relevant work experience.
- Education – An overview of any relevant qualifications or professional training you have.
- Hobbies and interests – A short description of any relevant hobbies or interests (optional).
Now you understand the basic layout of a CV, here’s what you should include in each section of yours.
Contact Details
Tuck your contact details into the corner of your CV, so that they don’t take up too much space.
Stick to the basic details, such as:
- Mobile number
- Email address – It should sound professional, such as your full name.
- Location -Just write your rough location, rather than your full address.
- LinkedIn profile or portfolio URL – If you include these, ensure they’re sleek, professional and up-to-date.
Legal Executive CV Profile
To immediately capture the attention of recruiters, begin your CV with a powerful profile (or personal statement for junior applicants).
This is a brief introductory paragraph that summarises your skills, experience, and knowledge.
It should position you as the ideal candidate for the job and encourage recruiters to read on.
How to write a good CV profile:
- Make it short and sharp: Recruiters have piles of CVs to read through and limited time to dedicate to each, so it pays to showcase your abilities in as few words as possible. 3-4 lines is ideal.
- Tailor it: No matter how much time you put into your CV profile, it won’t impress if it’s irrelevant to the role you’re applying for. Before you start writing, make a list of the skills, knowledge and experience your target employer is looking for. Then, make sure to mention them in your CV profile and throughout the rest of your application.
- Don’t add an objective: Avoid discussing your career goals in your CV profile – if you think they’re necessary, briefly mention them in your cover letter instead.
- Avoid generic phrases: If there’s one thing that’ll annoy a recruiter, it’s a clichè-packed CV. Focus on showcasing your hard skills, experience and the results you’ve gained in previous roles, which will impress recruiters far more.
Example CV profile for Legal Executive
What to include in your Legal Executive CV profile?
- Experience overview: Demonstrate your suitability for your target jobs by giving a high level summary of your previous work work experience, including the industries you have worked in, types of employer, and the type of roles you have previous experience of.
- Targeted skills: Highlight your skills which are most relevant to Legal Executive jobs, to ensure that recruiters see your most in-demand skills as soon as they open your CV.
- Important qualifications: If the job postings require specific qualifications, it is essential to incorporate them in your profile to ensure visibility to hiring managers.
Quick tip: If you are finding it difficult to write an attention-grabbing CV profile, choose from hundreds of pre-written profiles across all industries, and add one to your CV with one click in our quick-and-easy CV Builder. All profiles are written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.
Core skills section
To ensure that your most relevant skills catch the eye of readers, create a core skills section below your profile.
This section should be presented in 2-3 columns of bullet points highlighting your applicable skills. Before crafting this section, carefully examine the job description and create a list of any required skills, specialisms, or knowledge.
Use this list to include the necessary information in your section and present yourself as the ideal match for the position.
Important skills for your Legal Executive CV
Legal Research – Conducting comprehensive legal research using various resources, including statutes, case law, regulations, and legal databases, to support legal cases and client needs.
Legal Writing – Drafting clear and accurate legal documents, such as contracts, pleadings, affidavits, and legal correspondence, with attention to detail and adherence to legal standards.
Client Communication – Communicating effectively with clients, including explaining legal processes, providing updates on case progress, and addressing client inquiries.
Case Management – Managing legal cases efficiently, including organising case files, tracking deadlines, and coordinating with legal teams and external parties.
Court Procedures – Maintaining knowledge of court procedures and rules, including filing documents, scheduling hearings, and participating in court proceedings.
Contract Review and Analysis – Reviewing and analysing contracts to identify legal risks, obligations, and opportunities for negotiation and resolution.
Legal Administration – Completing administrative tasks related to legal operations, including billing, document management, and client recordkeeping.
Legal Technology – Using legal technology tools and software, such as document management systems and e-discovery software, to enhance productivity and efficiency.
Legal Documentation – Preparing and maintaining accurate legal documentation, including case summaries, deposition transcripts, and witness statements.
Legal Compliance – Maintaining knowledge of laws and regulations relevant to specific practice areas, ensuring that legal processes and client advice adhere to legal compliance standards.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy CV Builder has thousands of in-demand skills for all industries and professions, that can be added to your CV in seconds – This will save you time and ensure you get noticed by recruiters.
Work experience
By now, you’ll have hooked the reader’s attention and need to show them how you apply your skills and knowledge in the workplace, to benefit your employers.
So, starting with your most recent role and working backwards to your older roles, create a thorough summary of your career history to date.
If you’ve held several roles and are struggling for space, cut down the descriptions for your oldest jobs.
Structuring each job
Your work experience section will be long, so it’s important to structure it in a way which helps recruiters to quickly and easily find the information they need.
Use the 3-step structure, shown in the below example, below to achieve this.
Outline
Start with a solid introduction to your role as a whole, in order to build some context.
Explain the nature of the organisation you worked for, the size of the team you were part of, who you reported to and what the overarching purpose of your job was.
Key responsibilities
Next, write up a punchy list of your daily duties and responsibilities, using bullet points.
Wherever you can, point out how you put your hard skills and knowledge to use – especially skills which are applicable to your target role.
Key achievements
To finish off each role and prove the impact you made, list 1-3 stand out achievements, results or accomplishments.
This could be anything which had a positive outcome for the company you worked for, or perhaps a client/customer. Where applicable, quantify your examples with facts and figures.
Sample job description for Legal Executive CV
Outline
Work as part of a team of legal professionals at Jones & Partners LLP, offering specialist advice on conveyancing procedures including mortgages, land charges, and property valuations.
Key Responsibilities
- Conduct thorough due diligence investigations on properties, including Land Registry searches and environmental checks
- Collaborate with clients, lenders, and estate agents to gather documents
- Represent clients in property disputes and settlement negotiations
- Maintain organised files, ensuring compliance with GDPR
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy CV Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
In your education section, make any degrees, qualifications or training which are relevant to Legal Executive roles a focal point.
As well as mentioning the name of the organisation, qualification titles and dates of study, you should showcase any particularly relevant modules, assignments or projects.
Hobbies and interests
This section is entirely optional, so you’ll have to use your own judgement to figure out if it’s worth including.
If your hobbies and interests could make you appear more suitable for your dream job, then they are definitely worth adding.
Interests which are related to the industry, or hobbies like sports teams or volunteering, which display valuable transferable skills might be worth including.
Creating a strong Legal Executive CV requires a blend of punchy content, considered structure and format, and heavy tailoring.
By creating a punchy profile and core skills list, you’ll be able to hook recruiter’s attention and ensure your CV gets read.
Remember that research and relevance is the key to a good CV, so research your target roles before you start writing and pack your CV with relevant skills.
Best of luck with your next application!