Attorney Resume Example & Template (2026)

The median annual wage for lawyers in the United States was $151,160 as of May 2024, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics — but that number masks a wide range shaped by practice area, firm size, and location. In six major markets (New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Houston, and Austin), first-year BigLaw associate base salaries have reached $225,000. The resume that gets you there is not the one that lists your bar admissions and moves on. It is the one that translates your work into outcomes a hiring partner or in-house GC can immediately recognize.

This page gives you a complete, job-ready sample resume for an Attorney at the general (mid-career) level, followed by a section-by-section breakdown of why each part works, a practical ATS keyword guide, and the five mistakes that eliminate otherwise-qualified candidates.

Sample Attorney Resume

JORDAN M. HAYES Chicago, IL | (312) 555-0194 | jordan.hayes@email.com | linkedin.com/in/jordanmhayes | Illinois Bar No. 6312984

Professional Summary

Commercial litigator with seven years of experience at AmLaw 200 firms and one year as in-house counsel for a Series C SaaS company. Managed discovery on matters involving over 2 million documents using Relativity, argued four motions before the Northern District of Illinois, and reduced outside counsel spend by 34% in an in-house role by resolving contract disputes at the early-negotiation stage. Admitted in Illinois and Wisconsin. Seeking complex commercial litigation or corporate advisory roles at firms or companies where transactional depth and courtroom experience intersect.

Experience

Senior Associate — Commercial Litigation Hartley & Voss LLP, Chicago, IL | June 2020 – May 2025

• Led discovery strategy on a $47M breach-of-contract dispute, overseeing a team of three associates and two paralegals; managed Relativity review workflow that processed 2.3 million documents and reduced review time by 22% through targeted culling and AI-assisted categorization.
• Drafted and argued successful motion for summary judgment in the Northern District of Illinois, resulting in dismissal of all four counts against client; saved client an estimated $1.2M in projected trial costs.
• Negotiated and documented settlements in 11 commercial disputes ranging from $800K to $9M; all settled within authorized ranges and without trial.
• Conducted 23 depositions of fact and expert witnesses across matters in three jurisdictions; prepared six client witnesses for deposition, all without adverse outcomes at trial or arbitration.

Associate — General Litigation Mercer Dixon & Park LLP, Milwaukee, WI | September 2017 – May 2020

• Second-chaired a six-day jury trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court; jury returned a defense verdict on all claims in a $2.1M employment discrimination matter.
• Managed caseload of 18 active matters simultaneously, including contract disputes, insurance coverage litigation, and trade-secret claims; met all court-ordered deadlines across every matter for three consecutive years.
• Researched and drafted 14 appellate briefs and motions in limine; two briefs resulted in favorable Seventh Circuit rulings that became precedent cited by firm attorneys in subsequent matters.
• Mentored two first-year associates on legal research methodology and Westlaw best practices; both received positive mid-year evaluations citing research quality.

In-House Counsel Arcata Systems, Inc. (Series C SaaS), Chicago, IL | June 2025 – Present

• Serve as sole in-house attorney for a 220-person software company; manage all commercial contracts, employment matters, IP licensing, and vendor negotiations.
• Reduced outside counsel spend by 34% ($410K annualized) by handling contract disputes internally through structured early-resolution protocols and template standardization.
• Drafted and negotiated 60+ SaaS subscription agreements, DPAs, and enterprise MSAs; reduced average contract cycle time from 19 days to 9 days by implementing a three-tier playbook.
• Partnered with engineering and product teams on GDPR and CCPA compliance roadmap; achieved full Article 30 ROPA documentation and updated privacy notices ahead of a Q1 2026 Series D investor review.

Education

J.D., cum laude — University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, WI | May 2017

• Law Review, Associate Editor; Note published: Arbitration Clause Enforceability in Consumer SaaS Agreements, 2016 Wis. L. Rev. 441
• Moot Court Board, National Team — Advanced to quarterfinals, National Moot Court Competition (2016)
• Dean’s List all six semesters

B.A., Political Science & Economics — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | May 2014

• Graduated with Honors (GPA 3.7/4.0)

Bar Admissions & Certifications

• Illinois Bar (2017) | Wisconsin Bar (2018)
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (2018)
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit (2020)
• Certified Information Privacy Professional / U.S. (CIPP/US) — IAPP, 2024

Skills

Legal Research & Analysis · Contract Drafting & Negotiation · Commercial Litigation · Trial Preparation · Westlaw · LexisNexis · Relativity (E-Discovery) · Legal Writing & Motions · Client Counseling · Regulatory Compliance (GDPR, CCPA) · Deposition Preparation · Due Diligence · Oral Advocacy · iManage · Microsoft 365

Why This Resume Works — Section by Section

The Summary

Most attorney summaries read like a bar exam outline: “Experienced attorney with strong research and writing skills seeking a challenging position.” That tells a hiring partner nothing they can act on.

This summary does three things differently. First, it anchors the candidate with a specific practice area (commercial litigation) and a specific firm tier (AmLaw 200) — both of which are searchable signals in ATS and scannable by humans in under five seconds. Second, it names a quantified accomplishment (34% reduction in outside counsel spend) that immediately answers the in-house GC’s core question: will this person save us money? Third, it states bar admissions upfront because many postings auto-filter on this. If you are not admitted in the required jurisdiction, the rest of the resume is moot.

Keep summaries to three to five sentences. Every sentence should carry either a credential, a number, or a practice-area signal. Remove adjectives like “talented” and “driven” — they consume space and add zero information.

The Experience Bullets

Each bullet follows the same structure: action verb + specific task + measurable outcome. Notice what is absent: vague phrases like “assisted with” or “participated in.” Even junior associates can claim ownership of discrete tasks — the research memo, the discovery letter, the client call. Use the first person implicitly (no “I”) and lead with the strongest verb available.

Quantification: Numbers are not optional on an attorney resume. Courts, transactions, and matters generate numbers naturally — document counts, matter values, settlement amounts, headcount supervised, timelines compressed. If you genuinely do not have dollar figures, use volume (18 active matters), time savings (reduced cycle from 19 days to 9), or win/loss ratios (11 of 11 settlements within authorized range). At minimum, every experience section should contain at least two quantified bullets.

Verb selection: Vary your verbs across bullets. “Drafted,” “negotiated,” “argued,” “managed,” “conducted,” “researched,” “led,” and “partnered” each signal different competencies. A resume where every bullet starts with “Assisted” projects junior thinking regardless of actual seniority.

Ordering: The most impressive, role-relevant bullet goes first. On a litigation resume, the trial bullet or the large-matter bullet earns the top position. The mentorship bullet goes last — it is real and reflects well, but it does not close a candidate.

The Skills Section

This section exists primarily for ATS and secondarily for quick human scan. Format it as a flat, comma-separated or pipe-separated list rather than a table or grid — ATS parsers frequently fail to read table cells, burying your keywords. Include the specific tool names: “Westlaw” and “LexisNexis” rather than “legal research databases.” “Relativity” rather than “e-discovery software.” Specificity is the difference between matching a keyword filter and missing it.

Add practice-area terms here if they appear in the job description but do not otherwise appear naturally in your bullets: “GDPR,” “CCPA,” “M&A due diligence,” “securities regulation,” “employment law.” This is legitimate and expected.

The Education Section

For attorneys, education carries more weight than in most professions, especially at the early-to-mid career stage. Include: GPA if above 3.5, Law Review or journal participation, moot court, any published notes, and notable honors (cum laude, Order of the Coif). If you graduated more than ten years ago and your GPA is average, drop the GPA and keep the honors activities. Do not drop Law Review regardless of graduation year — it signals research and writing quality permanently.

A published law review note is a rare but strong differentiator on an ATS resume because very few candidates have it, and it is a unique phrase that surfaces in keyword searches for research-heavy roles.

Bar Admissions

This must be its own section, not buried in skills or education. Many ATS systems are configured to flag or filter by bar admission state. List the state bars, any federal court admissions, and relevant certifications (CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CFE for white-collar, etc.). If you have a pending application, list it as “Pending admission, [State], expected [Month Year].”

ATS Keyword Guidance for Attorney Resumes

Nearly 90% of large legal employers now run resumes through ATS before a human sees them. The practical implication: your resume must contain the exact phrases from the job description, not synonyms or paraphrases.

Practice-area terms to include by specialty:

• Commercial/civil litigation: commercial litigation, breach of contract, tortious interference, injunctive relief, summary judgment, motion practice, appellate brief, trial preparation, e-discovery
• Corporate/transactional: M&A, due diligence, merger agreement, purchase agreement, representations and warranties, closing conditions, regulatory approval, Hart-Scott-Rodino
• Employment: Title VII, FLSA, ADA, EEOC, wrongful termination, non-compete, severance agreement, employment discrimination
• IP: trademark, patent prosecution, copyright, trade secret, TTAB, USPTO, licensing agreement, IP portfolio
• Privacy/tech: GDPR, CCPA, data processing agreement, DPA, privacy policy, Article 30, breach notification

Tools and platforms that ATS frequently screens for:

• Westlaw, LexisNexis (name both; many postings list both specifically)
• Relativity (e-discovery document review)
• iManage or NetDocuments (document management)
• Clio, MyCase, or PracticePanther (if applying to smaller firms)
• ContractPodAi, Ironclad, or DocuSign CLM (if applying to in-house roles)

The mirroring rule: If a job posting uses “corporate governance” four times, that phrase belongs in your resume. Not “board oversight,” not “governance matters” — the exact phrase. ATS performs string matching, not semantic analysis, on most legacy platforms. Even modern AI-assisted ATS systems weight exact matches more heavily than synonyms.

Phrase density: A 600-word attorney resume should contain the primary practice-area keyword (e.g., “commercial litigation”) three to five times naturally — in the summary, in at least two bullet points, and in the skills list. Once is not enough. Ten times reads as stuffing and triggers spam filters on some platforms.

5 Common Attorney Resume Mistakes

1. Listing job duties instead of outcomes

“Responsible for drafting motions and conducting legal research” tells a hiring partner that you did what the role required. “Drafted motion for summary judgment resulting in dismissal of all four counts, saving client $1.2M in projected trial costs” tells them you were effective. Every bullet should end with a result, not a task description.

2. Omitting specific dollar amounts and matter sizes

Attorneys are reluctant to include matter values due to confidentiality concerns. But there is a middle ground: round figures or approximate ranges are acceptable and far more informative than nothing. “$47M breach-of-contract dispute” conveys practice level; “large commercial dispute” conveys nothing. If your engagement letter or press release is public, use the actual figure. If it is not, use a range or approximation that does not identify the client.

3. Using a table or text-box layout

Resume templates from Microsoft Word and Canva frequently use tables to create two-column layouts that look clean in PDF. They do not parse cleanly in ATS. A skills keyword in a table cell may never be indexed. Use a single-column layout or a layout built with standard paragraph formatting — not table cells, not text boxes, not headers/footers for contact information.

4. Burying or omitting bar admissions

Bar admissions are a threshold qualification, not a formality. At least one ATS screening configuration at every major firm filters on bar state before any human reviews the resume. “Admitted in Illinois” must appear in a clearly labeled section. If it is embedded in the education section or missing entirely, automated screening may reject a fully qualified candidate before a recruiter ever opens the file.

5. A generic summary that matches every attorney in the market

“Detail-oriented attorney with strong communication skills seeking a challenging role” could have been written by any of the approximately 1.37 million active attorneys in the United States (ABA, 2026). A summary that does not name your practice area, your seniority tier, and at least one outcome is a missed opportunity to distinguish yourself in the three seconds a screener spends before deciding whether to read on. Treat the summary as your oral argument opening — state your strongest point first, not last.