Are you looking for your next position in a law firm or agency? A role as an associate attorney is the ideal way to begin climbing the legal ladder.
But if you want to land the role, you need a resume that outlines your qualifications and industry knowledge.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide. Below, we’ll take you through how to write a resume step-by-step and provide you with an associate attorney resume example for extra support.
Guide contents
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Associate Attorney Resume Example
The example Associate Attorney resume above shows you how a professional resume should look, along with the type of content it should contain.
You can see that the information is well-organized across the page, and its easy for busy recruiters to see the candidate’s important skills.
Keep this in mind when writing your own resume.
Associate Attorney resume layout and formatting
The format and layout of your resume can make or break its success.
Sure, it’s great to pack your resume with lots of impressive skills and knowledge, but if the page is not structured clearly, hiring managers will struggle to find the important stuff!
Above all, your resume should be easy-to-read and professional looking.
Follow these formatting tips to get noticed.
How to format your resume
- Length: Recruiters often see hundreds of resumes per day – so keep yours under 2 pages in length, if you want to ensure it gets read in full.
- Font & text: Simplicity and a pleasant reading experience are crucial if you want to highlight your most valuable skills to recruiters. Use a clear font (avoid fancy ones) and break up the text in your resume with bullet points to ensure information can be easily consumed.
- Design & layout: Allow recruiters to skim through your resume with ease, by dividing the page into clear sections with headings and borders. The design of your resume should be eye-catching but not overly complex – keep the style and color scheme simple and clean.
- Photos: You don’t have to add a photo to your resume in the States, but some regions and industries like to see them.
Quick tip: Achieving a professional look for your resume can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want to create an attractive resume quickly, try our quick-and-easy Resume Builder and use one of their eye-catching resume templates.
Resume layout
Add the following sections when you write your resume.
- Name and contact details – Add to the very top of your resume to introduce yourself and make it super-easy for recruiters to get in touch.
- Resume summary – Reel hiring managers in with an “elevator pitch” style paragraph which sums up your suitability for the job.
- Skills section – A short and sharp list of your most important skills, that can be quickly skim-read.
- Work experience – List your previous jobs (from newest to oldest) detailing the skills learnt and applied in each.
- Education – List your qualifications and professional training.
- Additional info – If it helps your application, you can add an extra section for things like hobbies and interests.
Here’s what you should include in each section of your resume.
Resume Contact Details
Keep your contact details short to save resume space and include the following.
- Name and profession title
- Cell phone number
- Location – Add your local area such as Silicon Valley or New York, unless you are looking for work in a different location
- Email address – Keep it professional and don’t use an old address that you thought was cool in high school, but now looks a bit embarrassing.
You can add a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one – you do not need to include personal details like date of birth or marital status.
Associate Attorney Resume Summary
Now it’s time to get into the real content of your resume, starting with the summary.
Your resume summary is a short paragraph at the top of the document, and its jobs is to catch the eye of hiring managers by summarizing all your skills and knowledge that are most important to the roles you are applying for.
3 tips for creating a resume summary that will get noticed:
- Keep it concise: Your summary is intended to be a high-level introduction to hook readers’ attention, so keep it brief (4-7 lines) – save the details for later in your resume.
- Tailor to target jobs: Tailor your resume to your target jobs by studying the job description and adding as many matching skills as you can.
- Don’t use cliches: You might be a “highly motivated go-getter who thinks outside the box” but generic meaningless cliches like that don’t tell employers much about you – stick to factual information in your summary.
Example resume summary for Associate Attorney
What info to include in your Associate Attorney resume summary?
- Summary of experience: What type of organizations have you worked at? What types of roles have you done and what have you contributed to previous employers?
- Relevant skills: Skills that are highly relevant to Associate Attorney work should be made prominent throughout your summary.
- Vital qualifications: Mention any Associate Attorney qualifications that are important to your profession in the summary briefly, to show you are qualified to carry out the role.
Quick tip: Choose from hundreds of pre-written summaries across all industries, and add one to your resume with one-click in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder. All written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset and style.
Core skills section
In addition to your resume summary, your core skills section provides an easily digestible snapshot of your skills – perfect for grabbing the attention of busy hiring managers.
As Associate Attorney jobs might receive a huge pile of applications, this is a great way to stand out and show off your suitability for the role.
It should be made up of 2-3 columns of bullet points and be made up of skills that are highly relevant to the jobs you are targeting.
Top skills for your Associate Attorney resume
Litigation Procedures – resolving client disputes by filing or answering a complaint through the public court system.
Legal Research – identifying and finding the laws that apply to the facts of a case in support of a specific legal issue or decision.
Consultation Services – providing consultative services in advance of taking on a case, evidencing what support can be offered to the client and ensuring the case is likely to be won.
Arbitration Strategies – utilizing effective strategies to resolve worker/employer disputes outside of court.
Settlement Negotiations – effectively negotiating in and out of court settlements to the benefit of the client.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy Resume Builder contains thousands of in-demand skills for every profession that can be added to your resume in seconds – saving you time and greatly improving your chances of landing job interviews and getting hired.
Resume work experience section
Once you’ve hooked the hiring manager with your summary, you can really blow them away with you work experience.
List your previous jobs from newest to oldest to show the impact you made at each organization.
If you have years of experience, you can leave out some of the older jobs, and if you have little/no experience, you can bulk this section up with voluntary work and college placements.
Structuring your job descriptions
Without a good structure, your job description can look messy and overwhelming to anyone reading them.
Make it easy for recruiters to read your work experience by structuring your roles like this.
Job outline
Start with a 1-2 sentence outline of the role, summarizing what the goal of your position was, who you reported to (or managed) and the type of organization you worked for.
Key responsibilities
The bulk of the role description should be comprised of bullet points that explain all of your duties in the job.
Keep the sentences short and simple to make them easy for recruiters to digest.
Key achievements
Show employers the value you can bring to them by adding a few achievements to your jobs.
Whether you’ve saved the company money or improved an internal process, let recruiters know
Add some numbers to give readers a real scale of the impact, e.g. “reduced call wait time by 10%”
Example job for Associate Attorney resume
Outline
Support numerous litigation cases for a legal firm that offers world-class representation for clients ranging from individuals to Fortune 500 corporations.
Key Responsibilities
- Review files and interview clients to ascertain the details and merits of each case.
- Assist with discovery processes by administering depositions and issuing interrogatories.
- Conduct research using legislation, case law, and other legal texts as sources to decide on a modus operandi concerning bankruptcy, civil litigation, and estate planning issues.
- Draft contracts, deeds, wills, trusts, briefs, pleadings, motions, and letters of intent to prepare for trials, court, and other legal proceedings.
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
Near the end of your resume add your education section
Experienced candidates should keep it brief and focus on professional qualifications – and junior candidates can include high school diplomas, college degrees etc.
Additional information
The bottom of your resume is a place to add any “additional info”
Any other info that didn’t fall into any of the previous sections can be added here.
If you have hobbies that are related to your profession or any awards or publications – add them here.
Writing your Associate Attorney resume
A winning Associate Attorney resume should look great, read well, and sell your skillset to hiring managers.
If you follow the steps above, you should be able to bag yourself a top job in no time.
And don’t forget you can use our quick-and-easy Resume Builder if you want to save time and ensure your resume contains the very best content.
Good luck with your job search!