Lawyer CV Examples
Updated 30 July 2026
A strong lawyer CV must speak the language of legal recruiters: practice area, post-qualification experience (PQE), route to qualification, and quantified impact. Whether you are a trainee solicitor chasing your first seat, a mid-level associate building a caseload, or a senior fee-earner leading transactions, your CV should make your regulatory standing, specialism and results unambiguous in the first ten seconds. This guide shows you how to structure every section, with worked examples for solicitors and barristers at each career stage.
Lawyer CV examples
Trainee Solicitor / Aspiring Lawyer
JuniorAspiring solicitor completing the SQE with strong commercial and litigation experience from vacation schemes and pro bono work. Proven legal research, drafting and client-counselling skills across employment, contract and property matters. Eager to secure a training contract in a full-service firm.
Why it works: Leads with qualifying work experience, names the route (SQE), and connects voluntary work to transferable skills.
Mid-Level Solicitor (3 PQE)
Mid-levelSolicitor with 3 years' PQE in employment law, advising employers and employees on tribunal claims, settlement agreements and workplace policies. Track record of achieving cost-effective settlements and delivering pragmatic commercial advice. Admitted to the roll of solicitors of England and Wales (SRA), current practising certificate.
Why it works: States PQE and practice area up front, quantifies caseload and matter values, and demonstrates legal-tech proficiency.
Senior Solicitor (7+ PQE)
SeniorCommercially astute solicitor with 7+ years' PQE in corporate law, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and regulatory compliance. Proven track record leading high-value transactions, managing cross-border deals and building lasting client relationships. Admitted to the roll of solicitors of England and Wales (SRA), current practising certificate.
Why it works: Leads with PQE and specialism, quantifies deal values and billables, and shows business-development and team-leadership impact.
How to write a lawyer CV
Format and length
UK legal recruiters expect a reverse-chronological CV, two pages for junior lawyers (up to 3 PQE) and up to three pages for senior practitioners. Open with contact details and a personal statement that names your PQE and practice area. Follow with a skills summary, work experience (split into legal, commercial and voluntary blocks if you are a trainee or recent qualifier), education and training (in reverse order, listing your LPC/SQE or BPTC/Bar course before your LLB), and any relevant achievements or publications.
Section pointers
Personal statement: Lead with your PQE and specialism. Example: "Solicitor with 5 years' PQE in commercial litigation, specialising in contract disputes and professional negligence." State your admission status (admitted to the roll, called to the Bar, or trainee) and your current practising certificate. Keep it to three sentences.
Experience: Name the practice area, the type of matters handled, and the scale or outcome. Quantify wherever possible: deal values, caseload size, settlement amounts, billable hours, win rates. Anonymise clients ("a FTSE 100 retailer", "a £50m cross-border acquisition") to avoid breaching confidentiality. For trainees and aspiring lawyers, list vacation schemes, mini-pupillages, law-clinic work and qualifying work experience separately, and connect each to the skills you built.
Skills: Split into hard skills (legal research platforms, case-management systems, document automation, practice-area knowledge) and soft skills (advocacy, negotiation, client counselling). Include the tools you actually use, Westlaw, LexisNexis, Clio, LEAP, because firms screen for them.
Education and training: List your route to qualification in reverse order. Solicitors: show the LPC or SQE, then your LLB or GDL. Barristers: show the BPTC/Bar course and pupillage status. Include institution names, dates, grades and any relevant electives or distinctions. If you hold Higher Rights of Audience or are foreign-qualified, state it plainly.
Extras: Memberships (Law Society, Bar Council, specialist associations), publications, pro bono work, and mooting or client-interviewing competition wins all belong here if they are recent and relevant.
| Section | What to include |
|---|---|
| Personal statement | PQE, practice area, admission status, one standout achievement |
| Experience | Matter type, value/scale, outcome, anonymised client description |
| Skills | Legal-tech tools, research platforms, practice-area knowledge, named soft skills |
| Education | LPC/SQE or BPTC, LLB/GDL, institution, dates, grades, electives |
| Achievements | Admission date, practising certificate, professional recognitions, publications |
Personal statement examples
Aspiring solicitor completing the SQE with 14 months' qualifying work experience across employment, property and commercial law. Proven legal research, drafting and client-counselling skills from a university law clinic (15+ pro bono cases, 80% settlement rate) and a vacation scheme at a top-50 firm. Eager to secure a training contract in a full-service practice.
Hard-working and detail-oriented law graduate seeking a role in a reputable firm to develop my skills and gain experience. Strong academic record and a passion for justice. Excellent communication skills and a team player who is committed to delivering high-quality work.
Writing your experience
The result-plus-metric pattern
Legal recruiters want to see what you handled, at what scale, and what happened. A strong bullet names the matter type, quantifies the work, and states the outcome. Weak bullets list duties ("responsible for legal research"); strong bullets show impact ("researched 20+ authorities on unfair dismissal, synthesising findings into a two-page advice note that secured settlement before tribunal").
Before and after
| Weak (duty-focused) | Strong (outcome-focused) |
|---|---|
| Responsible for drafting contracts and legal documents. | Drafted 30+ commercial contracts and settlement agreements, achieving a 95% first-time approval rate from supervising partners. |
| Assisted with due diligence on corporate transactions. | Conducted legal due diligence on a £40m acquisition, identifying tax liabilities that reduced the purchase price by £3.5m. |
| Provided legal advice to clients on employment matters. | Advised 25+ employer clients on tribunal claims, achieving a 90% settlement rate and average cost savings of 35% versus projected awards. |
Action verbs for lawyers
Use verbs that reflect the core legal skills: advised, drafted, negotiated, represented, researched, conducted (due diligence, investigations), managed (caseload, transactions), led (legal workstream, team), achieved (settlement, dismissal, cost savings), completed (deals, matters), presented (advocacy, client meetings). Avoid passive constructions ("legal research was conducted") and generic verbs ("helped with", "involved in").
More examples
- Trainee/junior: "Drafted compliant sickness, maternity and retirement policies for an SME client, adopted without amendment and reducing HR-query volume by 40%."
- Mid-level: "Represented a national retail client at Employment Tribunal, securing dismissal of a £120,000 disability-discrimination claim at preliminary hearing."
- Senior: "Led the legal workstream on 15+ M&A transactions with a combined value exceeding £300m, completing deals an average of 10% ahead of target timelines."
Key skills & ATS keywords
Hard skills
Soft skills
ATS keywords
Education & certifications
How to present your route to qualification
Legal recruiters scan the education section first to verify your route and regulatory standing. List your qualifications in reverse chronological order: solicitors show the LPC or SQE (with dates and institution) before the LLB or GDL; barristers show the BPTC or Bar course and state whether pupillage is complete. Include the institution name, location, dates (start and end years), degree classification or grade, and any relevant electives, dissertation topics or mooting achievements.
Solicitors (traditional route): LPC, then LLB (or GDL if you are a non-law graduate). Name the electives (e.g. Corporate Law, Employment Law, Advanced Drafting) because they signal your intended practice area.
Solicitors (SQE route): State SQE1 and SQE2 pass dates and the institution where you prepared. If you are still completing the SQE, write "SQE1 passed [date]; SQE2 scheduled [date]".
Barristers: BPTC (or the newer Bar course), then your LLB or GDL. State whether you have completed pupillage and, if so, the chambers and dates.
Foreign-qualified lawyers: Name your home jurisdiction and bar (e.g. "Admitted New York Bar, 2020"), then state your UK route ("Qualifying via SQE" or "QLTS passed 2023").
Certifications that matter
List your admission to the roll or call to the Bar in the achievements section, with the date and regulator (SRA, Bar Council). State your current practising certificate status. If you hold Higher Rights of Audience (solicitor advocates), name the level (civil, criminal, or both). Specialist accreditations (e.g. Law Society accreditation in a practice area, Resolution family-law accreditation) and relevant compliance training (GDPR, anti-money-laundering) also belong here.
Do not list generic CPD courses unless they are directly relevant to the target role (e.g. a course on the new Economic Crime Act for a financial-crime role).
Common mistakes to avoid
Burying or omitting your PQE and admission status, forcing the recruiter to hunt for it or guess whether you are qualified.
State your PQE and admission status in the personal statement. Example: "Solicitor with 3 years' PQE in employment law. Admitted to the roll of solicitors of England and Wales (SRA), current practising certificate."
Describing matters in a way that breaches client confidentiality by naming parties or revealing privileged details.
Anonymise all clients and cases. Write "a FTSE 250 retailer", "a £40m cross-border acquisition", or "a High Court contract dispute" instead of named parties or confidential facts.
Listing duties instead of outcomes, e.g. "responsible for legal research" or "assisted with due diligence".
Show the scale and result. Example: "Conducted due diligence on a £40m acquisition, identifying tax liabilities that reduced the purchase price by £3.5m."
Letting a single typo or grammatical error through. In a profession built on precise drafting, a spelling mistake reads as a competence signal.
Proofread three times. Ask a colleague or mentor to review. Use spell-check, but do not rely on it alone, homophone errors ("their" vs "there") will slip through.
Using a generic personal statement that could apply to any legal role, with no mention of your practice area or the type of work you want.
Name your specialism and the work you handle. Example: "Solicitor with 5 years' PQE in corporate law, specialising in M&A and private equity" beats "experienced solicitor seeking new opportunities".
Failing to tailor the CV to in-house versus private practice. Private-practice recruiters want billables and matter values; in-house recruiters want commercial advice, risk management and cost savings.
Reframe the same experience for the target audience. For private practice, emphasise fee-earning and client wins. For in-house, emphasise stakeholder partnering, contract volume and cost saved versus external counsel.
Junior vs senior: what changes
| Aspect | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Personal statement | Leads with qualifying work experience, route to qualification (SQE, LPC, BPTC) and transferable skills from vacation schemes, law clinics or pro bono work. | Leads with PQE, practice area, admission status and a headline achievement (e.g. deal value, caseload managed, client relationships built). |
| Experience bullets | Focuses on tasks completed under supervision, learning opportunities, and foundational skills (research, drafting, client interviewing). Quantifies where possible (number of cases, documents reviewed). | Focuses on matters led, teams supervised, business development and commercial impact. Quantifies deal values, billable hours, settlement amounts, win rates and revenue generated. |
| Practice area | May list exposure to multiple areas from training-contract seats or vacation schemes. Signals intended specialism but has not yet built deep expertise. | Names a clear specialism (e.g. corporate M&A, employment, litigation) and demonstrates depth through matter types, transaction values and client base. |
| Qualifications | Highlights recent completion of LPC/SQE or BPTC, strong academic results, mooting or law-clinic achievements, and any prizes or scholarships. | Lists admission date, practising certificate, any Higher Rights of Audience, specialist accreditations, and professional recognitions (e.g. Legal 500 ranking, client testimonials). |
| Skills | Emphasises foundational legal skills (research, drafting, client interviewing) and willingness to learn. May list legal-tech tools used during placements. | Emphasises advanced skills (advocacy, negotiation, team supervision, business development) and the specific legal-tech stack used daily (Clio, LEAP, Westlaw, document automation). |
| Achievements | University prizes, mooting competition wins, law-clinic commendations, vacation-scheme offers, and qualifying work experience accrued. | Admission to the roll or Bar, practising certificate, Legal 500 or Chambers rankings, published articles, conference speaking, and client or peer awards. |