Legal Secretary Resume Example

After reading this article, you'll feel confident creating a legal secretary resume that effectively showcases your relevant skills and experience. The guide will show you practical examples of how to structure your resume to show off your best and most relevant skills and career achievements. It will also show you how to tailor your resume according to the job description and your unique skill set. Continue reading to find the best legal secretary resume tips from careers experts at Jobseeker.

Main elements of a legal secretary resume

It's essential to include a few core sections in your legal secretary resume, while there are also a few optional sections you can make use of to strengthen your application. If you're a candidate without much experience, you may wish to present your resume in a way that draws attention to your most valuable skills. These might not be in traditional work settings, so sections like education, projects, hobbies and skills can be more prominent.

While the content and format of your resume may vary depending on your experience levels, it's important to always include the following sections:

Header and Personal Information

Your legal secretary resume header is the place to add your contact details. Start by adding your full name and underneath, include your email address, phone number and location. Adding your LinkedIn profile, if you have one, can help the employer get a better insight into your skills and industry expertise. You don't need to include any additional personal information or a photo. Keep your header clear and concise, with only the most necessary information included. Opt for a stylish, professional design that creates a strong first impression.

Opt for a professional-looking email address based on your name. If your email address could be construed as unprofessional or inappropriate because it contains nicknames or unsuitable language, create a new, more professional email address for your job applications. Always check your contact details to make sure they're up-to-date before you send your resume.

Resume Profile

Following your resume header, write a resume summary to introduce yourself and showcase some of your key skills and achievements. Alternative names for this section are 'resume objective' and 'personal profile'. While a resume summary focuses on your career experience, a resume objective covers your ambitions and career plans. However, make sure you keep your resume summary short and snappy, and focused on the skills and experience listed in the job description.

Alternatively, you could use this section to reference your objectives and ambitions, and how this role would fit into your career journey.

A strong resume summary focuses on two or three key skills and achievements that showcase your suitability for legal secretary roles in a clear, quantifiable way. It also gives an insight into your personal qualities, to help the reader understand why you're a suitable candidate. See below for some great examples of what to include in your legal secretary resume summary.

Alternatively, a poor resume summary would include bland, generic information that does little to prove your suitability for the role, while failing to provide any useful insights on you as a person or as a candidate. See above for some examples of things to avoid when writing your legal secretary resume summary.

Skills

The skills section of a legal secretary resume is a chance to list any skills you have that match those of the job description. You could include dictation and transcription, time management skills or any other skills that show you're a suitable candidate. Once more, review the job description and pick out any key legal secretary skills listed that match yours. Focus on these skills and any other key transferable skills that make you a strong candidate for the job.

How to list hard skills on your legal secretary resume

Hard skills are the key technical skills required for legal secretary positions. They include specific industry knowledge and abilities that you could learn on the job, or through a specialist qualification. Furthermore, it's important to show these skills in a legal secretary resume as they provide a strong indication of your experience in the sector. Include around four or five key hard skills that are listed in the job description. These skills will help to convince the hiring manager that you're a good fit for the position.

If you want to make a strong impression with your hard skills list, focus on hard skills that align with your specific industry expertise, and that reflect the job description. For inspiration on the right type of hard skills for a legal secretary resume, see below.

Soft skills on your legal secretary resume

Soft skills are the personal skills and qualities that make you a good fit for the job. They include transferable skills and strengths that help you settle into the role, adapt to new challenges and build effective working relationships. Indeed, as the nature of work changes, soft skills are growing in importance, so make sure you include them in your resume. It's best to aim for four or five soft skills that match the job description and reflect your strongest personal qualities.

The strongest resume soft skills sections include a mix of skills that match your best personal strengths, and that reflect the skills listed in the job description. See below for some examples of effective soft skills for a legal secretary resume.

Education

Your resume's education section provides space for you to list your highest and most relevant qualifications for legal secretary roles.

Typically, working as a legal secretary requires a university or college degree, which you'll need to list on your resume. If you're working in this sector, it's usually a good idea to highlight your Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies degree or other relevant qualifications. Focus on qualifications that showcase your legal document preparation or court filing procedures.

Enter the name and level of the qualification, the institution you studied at, its location and your dates of study or graduation. Include bullet points to show any specialist modules you studied, awards or exceptional grades and achievements that can set you apart from other candidates. These will all contribute to creating a positive impression on employers.

If you organized or participated in any clubs or societies while at university, or you took part in any voluntary work, you could also mention these here.

Relevant Certifications and Licenses

Your certifications section is the place to mention any relevant professional legal secretary certifications, licenses or qualifications. You could list accreditations for certain professional roles or licenses for certain activities that help to make you a strong candidate. Therefore, add any necessary licenses and certifications in this section, along with valid dates so employers can see you're still qualified for the job.

See below for some suggestions of relevant certifications for a legal secretary resume:

Work Experience

Under your work experience section, add any jobs you've had in the past that are relevant to the position of a legal secretary. Mention only the most appropriate and relevant jobs you've had in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent and working backwards. Add your job title, the name of the employer, the location of the role and your dates of employment.

In addition, include a few bullet points under each job, highlighting your key achievements so the hiring manager can see how they led to successful outcomes. Back up each point with evidence to show how you meet the job description.

The best resume work experience sections focus only on the most relevant previous jobs, and link each bullet point back to a skill or experience listed in the job description. It's also critical to provide evidence that shows the value you added to each role in a quantifiable way, such as project outcomes, key performance indicators or feedback from customers, colleagues or managers. There are some examples of strong resume work experience sections below.

Above, you can see a weaker example of a resume work experience section to best avoid. Poor examples of resume work experience sections tend to be vague and fail to quantify your achievements and the impact you've made in your career to date. They may also focus on responsibilities above relevant skills and how you've used them.

Optional Resume Sections

To provide further information on your suitability for the role, you could add some optional sections to a legal secretary resume. Choose optional sections from the list below, if they help to showcase your relevant skills and experience.

Hobbies and Interests

Adding your hobbies and interests is a legitimate way of showing off your skills and personal qualities. Hobbies can help you show different sides of your personality and make your resume more memorable to hiring managers. They're ideal to include if you're a junior candidate who might lack real world legal secretary experience. Think about adding hobbies and interests to your resume if they add some insight into your personality that you can't express elsewhere in your application.

Voluntary Work

Listing volunteer work is another useful way to prove your relevant experience for legal secretary roles. Write your volunteer section in a similar format to your work experience, including your role, the organization name, relevant dates and the details of your contribution.

References

Standard legal secretary resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Be sure to prepare your referees in advance, so they've agreed to provide a reference and are ready to be contacted.

Best action words for your legal secretary resume

Start each bullet point in your work experience section with a strong verb to show actions you took. Choose verbs from the suggestions below that highlight your key skills or those mentioned in the job description.

For help creating an eye-catching resume design to catch the attention of hiring managers, see Jobseeker's professional resume layouts. You can also use our clear, effective cover letter templates to complete your application.

Example of a legal secretary resume

Using each of the sections above, we've created this example legal secretary resume, to help guide you when creating your own:

Guide to making your resume ATS-friendly

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help recruiters and employers to manage their hiring process. They can handle some of the more time-consuming and resource-intensive jobs, such as initial screening of resumes. Employers often receive hundreds of applications per vacancy, and ATS software can quickly and accurately scan and rank resumes based on their likely suitability for any role. When drafting your legal secretary resume, there are a few guidelines to follow to give you the best chance of passing the ATS screening stage and progressing with your application.

Follow these guidelines to create the best ATS-friendly resume:

• Use a traditional resume layout, such as a reverse-chronological or functional format. This will mean your resume includes all the necessary sections, in the expected order.
• Use keywords throughout your resume that reflect the job description, so ATS resume scanners can recognize a strong connection between your skills, and those in the job description.
• Using clear, simple headings makes it easier for an ATS application to scan your resume, as it can easily identify what's in each section of your document.
• Utilize a clean, clear resume design that helps make your content more readable. Use simple fonts and subtle color accents and design elements that don't detract from the written content.
• Use simple, concise language to keep your resume to a maximum of one to two pages in length. This will make it easier for ATS software to read.

Key points for your legal secretary resume

An effective resume is a concise, professional summary of your relevant skills and career achievements, showcased through a chronology of your career history. Pick a resume format that matches your experience levels, and tailor the content of your resume to reflect the details of the job description.

Jobseeker has a wealth of resume tools, including resume templates and examples, to help you create a winning job application. Sign up today to get started. To make the best possible impression with your applications, write a cover letter with the help of Jobseeker. You can also find plenty of expert-designed cover letter examples for inspiration.

Sources:

(1) Writing a Resume, California Department of Human Resources: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/employees/Pages/resume-tips.aspx

(2) Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications, New York State Department of Labor: https://dol.ny.gov/resumes-cover-letters-and-job-applications