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5 Legal Assistant Resume Examples...

5 Legal Assistant Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

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All resume examples in this guide

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INDUSTRY STATS

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Legal Assistant positions are at a 12% growth rate, which is faster than average. With that said, there are currently 345,600 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 41,400 to 387,000 in the period of 2020-30.

What’s more, the median annual wage for the Legal Assistant jobs was $52,920 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $32,900, and the highest 10% more than $85,160.

Our conclusion? The Legal Assistant job market is wide open for candidates.

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Top legal assistant sections that make the best resume

  • Header
  • Professional summary
  • Experience (with numbers and results)
  • Relevant skills
  • Education
  • Certifications

How to write a legal assistant resume experience section

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Legal assistant resume's job experience checklist:
  • Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
  • Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
  • Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
  • Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
  • Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.

The work experience samples below come from real Legal Assistant resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:

Work Experience
Legal Assistant - Real Estate & Operations
Movie Intense
2018-2020
  • managed short term Real Estate projects in the EMEA region
  • performed contract and budget management projects
  • created standard operating procedures, and trained business partners on legal policies, tools, and processes
  • ensured legal guidelines are met by auditing business processes
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Aexie Swarm
2017-2020
  • Daily support to legal department of 20+ people, assistance to the Legal Vice president with his day-to-day tasks.
  • Reviewing and record keeping of Board Minutes, Resolutions and other corporate documents.
  • Drafting of Nondisclosure agreements, participated in the drafting of various other legal documents - financial agreements, proxies, amendments and many more.
  • AML documents drafting and execution.
Work Experience
HR&Legal Assistant
Bravura Origin
2009-2014
  • Preparation of business and labor contracts, reports and policies
  • Provision of HR services, consulting and corporate secretarial services
  • Maintaining legal compliance for the company and its clients
  • Preparation of proposals and contract negotiation with potential clients
  • Assistance with incorporation of Czech companies, share transfers, acquiring various trade licenses and permits
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Hermiston LLC
2012-2014
  • Branched out overseas construction projects and invested in environmental industries by investigating legal issues and business conditions in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Pakistan, and Algeria
  • Dealt with white-collar criminal cases including bribery, malpractice, and embezzlement
  • Managed civil lawsuits and arbitration cases regarding construction projects
  • Addressed administrative litigation cases, such as high-profile administrative litigation regarding bid-rigging by preparing presentations for the hearing to minimize penalties¬¬¬
  • Legal overview of contracts with the government and, national and international government ordered construction bidding processes
Work Experience
Head Legal Assistant
Innovation Modular
2016-2020
  • Met with high value clients and other legal professionals to discuss sensitive case details
  • Interpreted and relayed complex legal information in a clear and informative format for clients
  • Organized and led personnel to draft various court documents, invoices and enclosures.
Work Experience
Legal Assistant Corporate Affaires
Monk
2016-2017
  • Diligently registered foreign investors companies in compliance to the OHADA uniform act within record time
  • Reviewed and drafted company articles of incorporation and facilitated translation of articles from french to english
  • Constatntly followed up for compliance to incountry regulations for doing business
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Bode - Jones
2017-2021
  • Negotiate, on average, deductions that totals approximately $50,000 weekly with medical and legal entities, which enhances the client’s and firms overall net profit.
  • Coordinates with medical professionals and clients to obtain and provide timely appointments, updates and decisions regarding their case under my purview.
  • Assists in managing over 300 case files to ensure all deadlines are met and all necessary information to support claims obtained.
  • Maintains, in conjunction with office staff, I maintain community relations, medical billing, legal briefs, account information, acquisitions and payment disbursements.
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Bode - Jones
2019-2021
  • probate law role requiring problem solving skills, empathy, sensitivity, and client expectation management
  • consistently the highest achieving member of my team, supported by recorded statistics, such as writing the most letters (90) and taking the most calls (47) in the same week
  • drafting Oaths, inheritance tax forms and business letters
  • extensive experience in case management system
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Smash Tech
2009-2014
  • Handled and organized all legal documents set up for court approval.
  • All secretarial duties, such as answering the phone and taking messages for attorneys.
  • Drafting of summons and letters to clients.
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Inspire Co
2017-2020
  • Following a short summer placement in 2013, I was hired as a legal assistant in a general practice solicitors' firm.
  • My responsibilities included carrying legal research, preparing legal documents and correspondence, interviewing clients and witnesses, taking notes of meetings and court hearings, data inputting and assisting with other general administrative duties.
  • Working in a civil law jurisdiction was challenging, as I had to swiftly adapt to a completely different legal system with its own rules, procedures and terminology, but this helped me form a great amount of resilience and develop my skills in working accurately under pressure.
Work Experience
Legal Assistant
Flux
2019-2021
  • I created an effective system that decreased the time of organizing cases
  • I prepped 75 cases a day which resulted in reduction of court fees for the firm
  • Trained to do garnishments using internal software and mathematics for the correct statements
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PRO TIP

Make sure to relate your experience to your job description, but never lie. That’s not tolerated and will show up in the face-to-face interview later on.

Action verbs for your legal assistant resume

At Enhancv, we went through countless Legal Assistant resumes and uncovered which are the unique words people use to spice up their resumes. Forget about buzzwords - use these power words instead to make your experience section shine.

Legal Assistant Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters

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Resume skills section checklist:
  • Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
  • Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
  • Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
  • Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top skills for your legal assistant resume
HARD SKILLS

Westlaw

Lexis

JustCite

Latex

Evernote

Access

Datev Koinos

CRM Salesforce

SOFT SKILLS

Desire to help others

Confidence

Persistence

Discipline

Loyalty

Personal integrity

Humility and sensitivity

Empathetic listening

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PRO TIP

When describing your experience, don’t go too far from its terminology. Recruiters use ATS systems to filter resumes based on them having certain keywords, so make sure you use at least a few keywords mentioned in the job description.

what to write in your resume header
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Checklist for your legal assistant resume header
  • Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
  • The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
  • Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
  • Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
  • Email address
  • Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)

Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:

  • first.last@gmail.com
  • last.first@gmail.com
  • firstlast@gmail.com
  • f.last@gmail.com
  • first.l@gmail.com
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PRO TIP

Some companies, states, and countries have policies about identifying information like photos on your Legal Assistant resume. Be sure to check all the relevant rules before submitting yours. If you’re in doubt, you can always try contacting the company’s HR department to ask for their policy.

Legal assistant resume summary best practices

what to write in your resume summary
Checklist icon
Checklist: What to include in your Legal Assistant resume summary:
  • Years of experience;
  • Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
  • One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
  • Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
resume Summary Formula icon
Resume summary formula:
Resume Summary Formula: [Adjective] [job title] with [number] years of experience in [industry], a proven ability to [relevant, measurable skills], and a strong background in [relevant context of your work experience] seeks a position as [the job title you’re applying for].
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PRO TIP

Your summary section should act as a brief but informative introduction to your experience section. In this section you should go into more depth about what you have done, and how you did it.

Listing your education, certifications and courses

Checklist icon
Resume education section checklist:
  • Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
  • Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
  • Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
  • Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
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Top certifications for your legal assistant resume
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The Legal Support Specialist

The ultimate course for Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Paralegals and any legal support staff.

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Effective Legal Office Administration

Effective Legal Office Administration

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Virtual Assistant: Find, Hire, Train, and Manage

Work smarter, not harder: Learn how to win the war against "Entrepreneurial Overwhelm" with virtual assistants.

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Technology and Innovation for Legal Professionals

The ultimate course for legal professionals to become tech-savvy and have a competitive edge in the legal market

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Legal English

Legal language and communication skills

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PRO TIP

There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Legal Assistant. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.

There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:

The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.

Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.

Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.

Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.

Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:

To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.

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PRO TIP

Test your draft Legal Assistant resume by sending it out to peers and mentors in your circles. Ask them to review it as if they are hiring you for a project and implement the feedback afterwards.

Other sections to include in your resume

Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Legal Assistant resume:

When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Legal Assistant resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.

day of my life on resume   Enhancv resume section
  • Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
  • Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
  • Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
  • Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
  • List soft skills backed by examples;
  • Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
  • Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.

Legal Assistant resume examples

Explore additional legal assistant resume samples and guides and see what works for your level of experience or role.

By Experience

Senior Legal Assistant

Given that the Senior Legal Assistant position originated from the broader legal field, trends within law generally will influence the expectations and demands of this role.

Key pointers for job application success include showcasing experience with legal research, drafting, case management, and negotiation skills. For instance, if you can demonstrate an application of negotiation skills leading to the beneficial resolution of a case, it can indeed underline your proficiency. Remember that technological proficiency such as familiarity with legal software or e-discovery platforms can be a bonus. Beyond listing skills, elucidate how they assisted in case outcomes and efficiency enhancement, for example, 'Increased case processing speed by x% using...'. Stick to the fundamental formula of 'skill-action-results'.

Entry-Level Legal Assistant

As an Entry-Level Legal Assistant, it's crucial to have a basic understanding of legal areas like corporate law, civil law, and intellectual property law. This theoretical knowledge can improve your job application. Make sure to include relevant legal coursework or internships in your resume from the beginning to avoid being overlooked. Remember to emphasize courses or internships that have enhanced your understanding of real case outcomes and share your hands-on experiences. Avoid merely listing your coursework or internship experience; instead, demonstrate how they contributed to building a solid legal comprehension. Examples might include 'prepared legal documents in…' or 'assisted in legal research for…'. Stick to the “Skill-action-results” approach to create a more engaging, results-driven resume.

By Role

Real Estate Legal Assistant

A Real Estate Legal Assistant position builds upon standard legal assisting while focusing more specifically on real estate law trends and practices.

In job applications, key highlights should include experience with real estate transactions, title searches, contract drafting, and closings. Demonstrating how you leveraged these skills to facilitate real estate deals effectively will definitely add value to your application. Familiarity with real estate-focused software is also valuable. Reflect on incidents where your skills led to more efficient transactions or fewer legal issues, such as 'Reduced title dispute issues by x% by ...' or 'Facilitated x number of smooth closings using...'. This 'skill-action-results' framework will make your resume more compelling.

View Real Estate Legal Assistant Resume

Personal Injury Legal Assistant

The role of a Personal Injury Legal Assistant borrows heavily from general legal support trends, with a slant towards personal injury law practices.

Your application should focus on skills such as legal research, case management, drafting, and client account management. It's especially beneficial if you can share how you have handled sensitive client situations. IT proficiency in case management systems will be a plus. Demonstrate your unique contributions to case progress or client satisfaction instead of merely listing skills - for instance, 'Managed x number of personal injury cases, resulting in y favorable outcomes' or 'Improved client satisfaction score by x% by ...'. Stick with the 'skill-action-results' theme to make your resume stand out.

View Personal Injury Legal Assistant Resume
legal assistant resume example

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