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.
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
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:
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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
Recommended reads:
Legal Assistant Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
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
Westlaw
Lexis
JustCite
Latex
Evernote
Access
Datev Koinos
CRM Salesforce
Desire to help others
Confidence
Persistence
Discipline
Loyalty
Personal integrity
Humility and sensitivity
Empathetic listening
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.
Recommended Reads:
Legal assistant resume header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
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
Recommended reads:
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
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:
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.
Recommended reads:
Listing your education, certifications and courses
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.
Top certifications for your legal assistant resume
The Legal Support Specialist
The ultimate course for Legal Assistants, Legal Secretaries, Paralegals and any legal support staff.
Effective Legal Office Administration
Effective Legal Office Administration
Virtual Assistant: Find, Hire, Train, and Manage
Work smarter, not harder: Learn how to win the war against "Entrepreneurial Overwhelm" with virtual assistants.
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
Legal English
Legal language and communication skills
Recommended reads:
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.
How to Write a Legal Assistant Resume
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
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:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
Recommended reads:
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:
Legal assistant resume: How to make yours more creative & stand out
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.
What makes a great legal assistant resume: key takeaways
- 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.
