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Think of your resume as a roadmap that helps the law school admissions committee navigate the rest of your application. It’s one of the first things admissions officers look at when reviewing your file, and it sets the stage for the rest of the written materials in your file. In other words, it’s your first chance to make a good impression beyond your GPA and LSAT score.
I spoke with several of the law school admissions consulting experts on my team and asked them for the most useful tips when preparing your law school resume. I cover those tips in this article. I also explain the differences between a professional resume and a law school resume, offer formatting tips, and provide five resume examples you can use as references.
The best format for a law school resume is a clean, reverse-chronological layout that makes your education, experience, and accomplishments easy to scan. Keep section headings consistent, align dates in the same position throughout the resume, and use the same date format for every entry. Most law schools accept one to two pages, but it’s important to check each school’s requirements.
Here’s how I recommend applicants structure their resume:
1. The Header
3. Your Professional Experience
4. Leadership and Extracurricular Activities
5. Volunteer and Community Service
6. Skills and Interests
Starting your resume from scratch? Download this free law school resume template below.
Unlike a professional resume that’s tailored to a specific role or industry, your law school resume should give a broad picture of who you are as a candidate. A resume for law school needs to include your education after high school, work experience, additional activities, honors and awards, and any other interests you may have.
Keep your resume in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent experience. Don’t include any high school-related experiences. Cut any section that belongs in a professional resume, like "Objective" and "Summary of Qualifications."
As a bonus tip, make sure to tailor your resume to each school’s values. Michigan State Law School recommends highlighting the aspects of your background that are especially relevant to law school admission committees. So if you know a school likes to see pro bono work in its applicants, emphasize your relevant experience on your resume.
A law school resume doesn't have to be only legal experience. This is directly from Harvard Law’s Real Talk: The Resume:
Include all work experience. Did you work during the semesters [in] college? Tell us everything. Do you have experience in retail, hospitality, or child care? Studies show that experience in the service industry is one of the strongest predictors of success in law. Tell us about all the experience that brought you to this moment – not just the fancy internships.
Law schools want to know how you’ve spent your time, so give them the full picture. When selecting their incoming class, admissions committees want diversity in backgrounds, and your experience and interests outside the legal realm are a great indicator of what you would bring to the cohort.
Look at the sample resume below from Harvard Law’s application toolkit. This applicant has all sorts of interests, from creative Photoshop skills to their tastes in sports and music. The “Geaux Tigers” line adds a nice touch of humor that gives a glimpse of the applicant's personality. These little details go a long way.
Source: Harvard Law School
Lastly, your extracurriculars, volunteer work, research, and other ongoing commitments should include the average number of hours you spent per week. This gives admissions committees useful context about the depth of your involvement and helps distinguish a major commitment from an occasional activity.
When writing bullet points for the experience and activities sections of your law school resume, use them to tell your story, not just list what you did. Use action verbs that show your leadership and critical-thinking skills. Instead of just “attended meetings,” you “engaged in weekly discussion” or “coordinated meetings.” Take a look at this example:
The resume above would make anyone sound like a bystander instead of a leader. Using passive verbs like “attended” or “helped” won't highlight your initiative. Swap them out for stronger action verbs that demonstrate critical thinking. Take a look at this revised example:
Notice how swapping “helped” for “facilitated” and “attended” for “coordinated” is much more descriptive and demonstrates leadership without adding unnecessary fluff to your resume. Remember to also include the number of hours per week spent on each employment experience or activity, as shown in the example above.
Include a quantifiable number to back up your accomplishments and the value you brought to the role. For example:
In a recent webinar, one of our expert law school admissions counselor, Jesse Wang, a graduate of USC Gould School of Law, calls this the “so what?” factor. He says:
“Within each experience, your bullet points should also explain what you did to contribute. This the ‘so what?’ factor. For example, ‘I did X, Y, or Z, which resulted in a certain percentage increase.’ If you can quantify your impact and add numbers, that’s always helpful. This aspect of your resume is so important because it’s the first thing people see. Make sure it shows your impact. ”
Including hard metrics like these proves that you didn’t just show up; you made a difference. This is exactly what admissions committees want to see in your resume; it gives them a fuller picture of the real impact you had.
Although using language that demonstrates leadership and impact is important, you also need to avoid unnecessarily complicated jargon that might confuse a reader. A lot of times, applicants think that using corporate speak sounds impressive, but it might end up sounding a bit hollow or even arrogant.
Let’s take a look at a bad example:
Not only is this sentence confusing, but it also doesn’t specify what sort of tasks you held or give any real insight into your responsibilities.
Let’s translate that sentence into plain English:
Notice how the second example still talks about cross-functional collaboration, but it states it plainly, specifies who you collaborated with, and on what. The second sentence is much more concise, clearly explains the kind of task you did, and provides a metric to quantify your input.
When reviewing your application, the admissions committees use your resume to understand how you’ve spent your time before applying and what you've accomplished along the way. Each part of your application serves a different purpose, so your resume should add context rather than simply repeat information admissions officers can already find elsewhere.
For example, your CAS report already includes your LSAT score, so you don’t need to include it again on your resume. You can include your GPA in the education section if you want to highlight a strong academic record, but that’s optional and up to you.
Instead, your resume should fill in the rest of the picture: your education, work experience, leadership, extracurricular involvement, community service, awards, and other meaningful commitments.
Remember to emphasize your strongest experiences with great detail. Focus on depth rather than simply listing as many activities as possible. Sustained involvement, increased responsibility, leadership, initiative, and measurable contributions can tell admissions committees much more than a long list of memberships.
Use this as a checklist before submitting your law school resume:
⬜️ Keep it to one or two pages unless the school specifies otherwise.
⬜️ Use a readable font, generally around 11–12 points.
⬜️ Organize each section in reverse chronological order.
⬜️ Use consistent section headings, margins, spacing, and bullet formatting.
⬜️ Keep dates aligned consistently and use the same date format throughout.
⬜️ Include hours per week for substantial extracurricular, volunteer, research, or service commitments when helpful.
⬜️ Highlight promotions, expanded responsibilities, leadership roles, or other evidence of progression when applicable.
⬜️ Quantify your impact when possible.
⬜️ Keep most bullet points to one or two lines.
⬜️ Leave enough white space so the page does not feel crowded.
⬜️ Avoid photos, graphics, elaborate templates, and unnecessary colors.
⬜️ Remove sections that add little value to a law school application, such as a career objective or “references available upon request.”
⬜️ Proofread carefully for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
⬜️ Save the final resume as a PDF unless instructed otherwise.
⬜️ Use a professional file name, such as FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf.
Source: Harvard Law
Source: University of Buffalo Law School
Source: Harvard Law
Source: University of Pennsylvania Law School
Source: Yale Law School
I put together an example of what a resume should not look like and how to improve it. I included common mistakes I see in applicants’ resumes and the kind of pointers that strengthen your application.
You should never use a standard job resume for law school applications. A job resume is meant to show an employer why you’re qualified for a certain position. By contrast, a law school resume should give a broader picture of your academic, professional, extracurricular, leadership, and community involvement. You can use your existing job resume as a starting point, but you will usually need to reorganize and expand it for law school applications.
Law school resumes don’t include certain sections found on job resumes, such as a career objective or professional summary. Admissions committees already know your immediate goal is to attend law school. A LinkedIn profile is optional, but you can include it with your contact information if your profile is current, professional, and adds useful context to your application.
In the chart below, I included all the main differences between a law school resume and a professional resume.
Yes, it’s important to tailor your resume for each law school instead of sending an identical version everywhere. Keep your core experiences the same, but emphasize the most relevant details for each school. For example, if a school values pro bono work, you should emphasize your volunteer experience. Make sure you follow the specific resume length requirements for each law program.
No, you should not include references on your law school resume unless the school specifically requests them. Your recommenders submit letters of recommendation separately as part of the application process.
No, submit a resume unless the law school specifically says it accepts or requires a CV. A law school resume can still include relevant research and publications without becoming a full academic CV.
Co-Founder of Juris Education, Dartmouth College
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