Origin Legal

Expert guidance for legal careers

Solicitors CV Template

CV of

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Profile

Summarise (a third to half page) your experience and show how it fits the role. Consider referencing:

Core areas of technical expertise;
Commercial, Business Development and Client facing skills/experience;
Previous experience of living or working overseas; any prior exposure to the target market;
Notable professional awards, recognition, exceptional academic or extracurricular achievements;
What you are looking for in a new role and why an offshore/international move attracts you;
Avoid excessive repetition of detail from the following CV.

Education and Qualifications

Legal admission(s) including month, year and jurisdiction;
Academic and professional studies in reverse order, most recent first back to GCSE/equivalent;
Include dates (month and year), institution, location, studies and overall results;
Where relevant, indicate ‘equivalent grades’ (e.g. GPA 63% equivalent to a UK 2.1);
Keep detail of individual modules to a minimum;
Brief mention of awards, prizes, scholarships;
Include fluent or near fluent languages (if multilingual this may merit a dedicated section).

Legal Employment

Reverse order from most recent, listing dates (month and year), firm, job title, location
For multiple roles with the same firm include dates for each role
Summarise core experience and typical client base
Additional responsibilities – business development activities, major successes
Sample deal/case list – a couple of lines summary for each, no need to list every document
Name clients where possible or describe them where confidential
Note where you led on deals, supervised others, acted as client contact etc.
Go back as far as training contract, allocating appropriate space according to how recent, how relevant and how long you were there
Alternatively, list employment history then follow with sample case/deal list spanning entire career

Business Development

Optional – not required for juniors (unless you have gained relevant experience), valuable for midlevel and strongly recommended for senior lawyers. The information can alternatively be included
with each job in the employment section. Consider including:

Notable client successes (client management or new client development)
Short excerpts of client testimonials
Pitch experience
Active involvement in marketing events
Publications and seminars (if included here do not repeat in additional information)
Client training

Additional Information

Adapt as required, the following headings are optional and should only be included if relevant.

Non-Legal Employment

For relevant or lengthy roles, include a summary, otherwise a bullet point list will suffice;
Where including non-legal experience, draw on relevant transferable skills;
Part-time jobs whilst studying, unless making a material difference, need not be included.

Pro-bono & Voluntary Work

Particularly emphasising pro-bono legal work.
Published Articles; Public Speaking/Seminars
Title, date, relevant chapter etc.;
Event, date, contribution.

Memberships

Industry or legal group memberships for example.

Awards

Academic and/or professional awards; scholarships; recommendations.
Interests
Keep it short and consider whether relevant.

CV gaps

If you have taken time out to travel for example, it can be useful to reference it here.

About The Author

Taylor Day