Building Your Law School Resume – workshop recording and recap

This workshop focused on building an effective law school resume, covering the purpose, structure, and content strategies for creating a compelling application document. It emphasized how a law school application resume differs from a traditional job application resume, highlighting the importance of showcasing experiences beyond academics to complement other application materials. The workshop provided detailed guidance on formatting, section organization, and creating impactful bullet points that demonstrate relevant skills and competencies valued by law schools.

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Key Takeaways and Summary of Learning Objectives

  • Law school resumes can exceed one page, unlike most job application resumes, allowing for more comprehensive presentation of experiences
  • Strong action verbs and quantifiable accomplishments create more impactful bullet points than generic descriptions
  • Including hours per week for each experience provides important context about time commitment and involvement level
  • Formatting consistency throughout the document demonstrates attention to detail, an important quality for law students
  • Strategic organization of sections helps highlight the most relevant experiences for law school admissions committees
  • The resume complements other application materials by focusing on experiences outside of academics

Purpose and Structure of a Law School Resume

A law school resume serves as a strategic summary of experiences and skills that complements other application materials. Law school resumes focus on showcasing how applicants have spent their time outside academics, as transcripts and test scores already cover academic achievements. The resume adds context to the overall application, helping candidates stand out from others with similar GPAs and test scores. It demonstrates attention to detail and highlights what applicants can bring to the institution beyond academics.

Law school resumes can be longer than traditional one-page job resumes, often extending to two or three pages if the content is valuable and relevant. Consistent formatting is crucial, including using 10-12 point font, minimum half-inch margins, clear section titles, reverse chronological order for experiences, and page numbers. The basic structure includes contact information, education, work experience, leadership/extracurricular activities, and optional sections like honors/awards or skills.

Creating Effective Content for Each Section

  • Education:
    • should appear at the top of the resume for most applicants
    • include the full name of the degree (spelled out rather than abbreviated), institution name and location, graduation date, GPA, and optional information like minors, research, academic awards, or study abroad experiences.
  • Experience:
    • The experience section can be generic or divided into customized categories like professional experience, leadership experience, or legal experience.
    • Each experience entry should include position title, organization name, location, dates (month and year), hours per week, and bullet points highlighting accomplishments and responsibilities.
    • Bullet points should follow the formula “action verb + task + result” to effectively communicate what was done, how it was done, and why it was important.
    • Strong action verbs (like “facilitated,” “collaborated,” or “managed”) are preferable to weak verbs (like “helped” or “participated”).
    • Even seemingly unrelated experiences like retail or restaurant work can be presented effectively by highlighting transferable skills such as multitasking, customer service, or teamwork.

Relevant Q&A

  • Question: If you’re taking community college classes during high school, do you put the name of that institution on your resume?
    • Answer: You don’t need to list coursework if it did not lead to a degree. If you didn’t get an AA from that experience, you wouldn’t include it because that coursework gets subsumed into your UF degree. However, you will need to report that college-level coursework in your LSAC CAS report.
  • Question: Should high school education be listed versus college and university?
    • Answer: You do not need to list high school education on your resume in any circumstance once you’re a college student or working on your bachelor’s degree.
  • Question: Would work experience be included here, or just activities from university?
    • Answer: The experience section will include work and university experiences. It can include any jobs you’ve held, even if not related to your academics or education, or can certainly include involvement in clubs, Greek life, military or leadership experience.

Tailoring the Resume for Law School Applications

Law school resumes differ from traditional job resumes in several key ways. They can be longer (multiple pages) to provide a more comprehensive picture of the applicant’s background. They should include hours per week for each experience to provide context about time commitment. Objective statements and professional summaries are generally unnecessary since this information is covered in other application materials like personal statements. The resume should highlight skills and competencies relevant to law school success, such as communication, research, critical thinking, and exposure to the law. Customizing section headings (like “Legal Experience” or “Leadership Experience”) can help emphasize the most relevant experiences. The resume should be organized strategically, with the most important and relevant experiences appearing first. Applicants should avoid including photos, hobbies, sensitive personal information, or full street addresses on their resumes.

Next Steps

  • Review and revise your resume using the action verb + task + result formula for bullet points
  • Consider customizing your resume sections to highlight the most relevant experiences for law school
  • Attend the Graduate and Professional Schools Fair in mid-October to connect with law school representatives

Additional Resources

By David Adams
David Adams Senior Assistant Director for Career Pathways – Business, Public Service, and Tourism
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