Law School Applicant Resume Written for the Admissions File
Law school applicant resume example and guide covering the LSAC format, work history, research, advocacy activities and what admissions readers check.
Example Law School Applicant summary
Law school applicant with a political science degree, two years as a paralegal in an eviction defense practice and a legislative internship in a state senate office. Manages a docket of active housing matters, drafts motions and discovery for attorney review, and interviews clients in two languages. Competed on the campus mock trial team. Applying to programs with strong housing and public interest clinics.
Skills to list on a Law School Applicant resume
- Legal research and citation
- Memo and motion drafting
- Discovery preparation
- Docket and deadline tracking
- Case management software
- Client intake interviewing
- Legislative and policy research
- Committee hearing summaries
- Mock trial and moot court advocacy
- Public speaking and oral argument
- Records review and redaction
- Constituent correspondence
- Bilingual client communication
- Confidentiality practice
What actually gets this resume read
- Use the plain reverse chronological format law schools expect, with no summary paragraph and no skills bar chart.
- Account for every period since you started college, including full-time work, because gaps invite a question.
- State hours per week for jobs held during term, since admissions readers weigh work carried alongside a full course load.
- Describe legal work by the document you produced, whether a memo, a motion, a chronology or a discovery response.
- Keep activities separate from employment, and give each one your role and the years you held it.
- Include military service, caregiving and family business work, all of which admissions readers count as real experience.
- Spell out honors and scholarships instead of using campus abbreviations no outside reader will recognize.