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Paralegal resume

What the hiring manager reads first

All roles Legal Reading notes, not rules

Summary

A hiring attorney usually looks first for bar admissions or credentials, practice areas and the matters actually worked on.

Also posted as: litigation paralegal, corporate paralegal, legal assistant, legal secretary, senior paralegal.

See a sample applicationNot taking applications yet.

Read first

  1. Practice areas and matter types
  2. Tasks owned: discovery, filings, closings
  3. Tools such as Relativity, Clio, iManage
  4. Certification if you have one

One line, before and after

  • Original: Litigation paralegal on 12 active cases. Managed document review in Relativity for a 400,000 page production.Suggested: Managed document review in Relativity for a 400,000-page production. Litigation paralegal on 12 active cases.
Why this changedThe hardest task with its scale leads. The caseload stays its own fact: the resume does not say the production spanned those cases. Every figure in the rewrite is in the original line; nothing is added.

Section order

  1. Summary
  2. Experience
  3. Skills and tools
  4. Certifications
  5. Education

Where your resume has these sections. A section your resume does not have is not added.

Mistakes that cost interviews

  • Attorney work claimed as your own
  • Attorney work claimed by non-attorneys
  • Confidential client detail

Evidence that counts in legal

  • Bar admissions or paralegal certification as written
  • Practice areas and matter types
  • The candidate's role on matters
  • Courts, agencies or deal types
  • Legal tools used

Use what your resume already shows. A line without a number can still be strong when it says clearly what you did and where.

Attorney, Compliance Analyst, and all 150 roles.

These are common reading conventions drawn from hiring guides and career services, not rules every employer follows.