The BigLaw resume guide

The best law-student resume is slightly boring.

It uses familiar headings. Dates are easy to find. Bullets explain what you did. Nothing forces the reader to decode a graphic, rating system, or paragraph of adjectives.

That is good. A resume is not supposed to display your entire personality. It is supposed to help a busy recruiter or lawyer understand your background quickly and find things worth discussing.

Keep it to one page in most cases

Most law students should use one page. Two pages can be appropriate for a substantial prior career, advanced publications, military service, or another genuinely long record. It should not be used because margins and editing feel difficult.

A normal order is:

1. Education
2. Experience
3. Activities, interests, or additional information

If you had a serious career before law school, experience can occasionally come first. Ask your career office because local recruiting conventions matter.

Education

List law school first, then prior degrees in reverse chronological order.

Include:

• school, city, and degree;
• expected graduation date;
• GPA or class rank if required or helpful;
• honors and scholarships;
• journals, moot court, clinics, and meaningful activities; and
• relevant coursework only when it adds real information.

Do not estimate a rank the school has not given you. Do not convert a GPA into a percentile yourself. If an employer asks for grades, provide them accurately.

Experience bullets should show work

Each bullet should begin with a strong verb and explain your contribution. "Responsible for" and "worked on" make the reader do too much work.

Weak:

Responsible for research and writing on various projects.

Better:

Researched state licensing requirements and drafted a five-page comparison used to evaluate expansion into three markets.

The second bullet gives the task, subject, and purpose. It does not claim the student personally decided the company's strategy.

Good bullets often answer:

• What did you produce?
• What problem did it support?
• Who used it?
• What scale or scope makes the work understandable?

Use numbers when they clarify, not because every bullet needs a statistic.

Prior nonlegal work belongs

Retail, teaching, finance, engineering, restaurants, military service, nonprofits, and other careers can all strengthen a legal resume. Firms hire people, not only collections of legal internships.

Translate the work without disguising it. A restaurant supervisor managed schedules, customers, inventory, and a team under pressure. That is useful. Calling the role "operational counsel" would be ridiculous.

Focus on judgment, responsibility, writing, analysis, service, and working with other people.

Activities and interests

List activities where you actually participate. A title without involvement adds little.

Interests can make interviews easier when they are specific:

• "Cooking" is fine.
• "Trying to make Roman pizza in a home oven" creates a conversation.
• "Travel" is vague.
• "Planning train trips through northern Italy" is memorable.

Do not invent interests because you think a partner will share them.

How to handle gaps

A short gap does not need an essay on the resume. Use consistent month and year dates. If there is a longer period, you can include education, caregiving, travel, health leave, job searching, or another accurate description when helpful.

Prepare a calm explanation for interviews:

"I took eight months after leaving my role to care for a family member and apply to law school. During that period I also volunteered weekly with..."

You do not owe an interviewer private medical or family details. Explain the timeline and redirect toward what you did or learned.

Writing samples are separate

A writing sample is a piece of legal or analytical writing submitted alongside the resume when requested. It is not pasted into the resume.

Choose a sample you substantially wrote, confirm you are allowed to share it, remove confidential information, and add a short cover page explaining context and any edits. Follow the employer's requested length.

Formatting rules that prevent problems

• Use a readable professional font.
• Keep margins consistent.
• Align dates.
• Use the same punctuation in every bullet.
• Save and submit as a PDF unless told otherwise.
• Name the file clearly, such as FirstName-LastName-Resume.pdf.
• Make sure copied hyperlinks work.
• Check the PDF on another device.

Avoid headshots, skill bars, columns that break applicant systems, decorative icons, and tiny text.

Proofread like the document matters

Read backward line by line. Confirm every date against LinkedIn and the application. Check firm names before each submission. Ask one person to review content and another to review formatting.

Common errors include:

• inconsistent dashes or periods;
• present tense for old jobs;
• a wrong city or date;
• extra spaces;
• bullets that wrap by one word; and
• a PDF filename from another application.

The honest test

Give the resume to someone for 30 seconds, then take it away. Can they tell what you studied, what you did before law school, and what two experiences they would ask about?

If yes, the resume is working.

Your career office should review the final version because school conventions and employer expectations differ. Then pair it with the cover-letter guide and move on. Endless formatting changes will not substitute for a clear record of real work.