General Counsel CV Example and Writing Guide for 2026

Use a clear reverse-chronological format, beginning with contact details and a focused personal statement. Follow with a compact skills section, professional experience, education and relevant additional information. Give recent roles the most space, but retain enough earlier history to show how you progressed towards General Counsel responsibility.

There is no fixed two-page rule for a General Counsel CV. Length should follow substance: include enough detail to establish technical range, commercial contribution, leadership and career progression, then remove repetition. Three pages may read better than two cramped pages if every entry earns its place. Use plain headings, generous spacing and conventional fonts so a reader can find evidence quickly.

Tailor the emphasis to the job description. A vacancy centred on acquisitions needs different evidence from one focused on compliance transformation or contentious risk. Applicants with unusually broad experience may keep more than one CV version, each truthful but weighted towards a different type of role.

Write each position with a short scope line followed by achievement bullets. Keep promotions under the same employer and date each title separately; this makes progression visible without repeating company information.

Treat each bullet as a small piece of evidence. Start with the decision or action you owned, state its scale, then give the result. Useful measures include legal spend, contract turnaround, team size, portfolio value, matter volume, training coverage, audit findings, settlement exposure or time saved. A percentage is only helpful when the reader can understand what changed.

The strongest entries show how legal work affected the organisation. General Counsel commonly oversee organisational legal issues, internal lawyers and external firms. They may advise the CEO, board and senior executives on governance, regulatory risk, acquisitions, employment policies and executive compensation. Depending on the organisation, their remit can also cover compliance programmes, disputes, contracts and major transactions. Your bullets should therefore connect legal judgement to a business decision, controlled exposure or improved operating process.

For disputes, state the portfolio or exposure you managed and the outcome without disclosing privileged or confidential information. For transactions, clarify your part in due diligence, structuring or closing and give a defensible value or timetable. Where proprietary technology, brands or creative works matter to the employer, evidence work on registrations, infringement monitoring or enforcement only if it formed part of your actual remit.

Good verbs include advised, negotiated, directed, resolved, consolidated, redesigned, implemented, remediated, governed, structured and reduced. Avoid opening every bullet with "responsible for" or "involved in" because neither explains your contribution.

Give recent positions three to five carefully selected bullets and compress older roles. If you were promoted, show each title and its dates beneath the employer. This lets the reader see increasing scope, rather than forcing them to infer it from a dense paragraph.

List awarded qualifications in reverse-chronological order, giving the qualification name, institution and completion year. Add a brief distinction, prize or relevant specialism only when it helps the application. Keep professional development selective: recent study tied to the target role is more useful than a catalogue of every seminar attended.

The supplied role evidence does not establish one universal degree, conversion course, practising route or named certification for every General Counsel applicant. Do not present a fictional route as a blanket entry requirement. Instead, state your own exact legal qualifications and credentials, then use the experience section to show how you have applied them. If the advert asks for a role-specific qualification, reproduce its exact name only when you genuinely hold it.

For General Counsel who are solicitors in England and Wales, the regulated route requires compliance with the SRA's Code of Conduct and Principles. In-house solicitors in that jurisdiction are also required to act with integrity and independence, uphold the rule of law and proper administration of justice, and maintain public trust and confidence in the solicitors profession. Keep this information factual and avoid implying that the same regulated requirements apply to every General Counsel role or jurisdiction.

Regular training on regulatory obligations and professional ethics is optional supporting development for in-house solicitors. It may be included under professional development when recent and relevant, using the course title, provider and year. Do not label attendance as a certification unless an award was actually issued.