A strong legal CV does one job: it proves, quickly, that you can be trusted with clients, deadlines and detail. Recruiters at law firms and in-house legal teams often scan a CV in under a minute, so the strongest law CVs lead with qualifications and admission status, show the matters and practice areas you have worked on, and back everything up with specific results.
Whether you are a trainee, a newly qualified solicitor, a barrister, a paralegal or a legal secretary, the structure below works for UK legal roles. Use one of the legal CV templates above to get the layout right, then follow the example and tips on this page to write the content.
A complete example you can use as a starting point. Pick a template above and the builder will pre-fill similar content for you to edit.
Emily Carter
Newly Qualified Solicitor – Commercial Litigation
Manchester, UK · emily.carter@example.com · 07700 900123
Personal statement
Newly qualified solicitor admitted to the Roll in 2025, with two years of qualifying work experience across commercial litigation, employment and corporate seats at a regional top-50 firm. Experienced in running a caseload of County Court matters under supervision, drafting pleadings and witness statements, and managing disclosure on High Court claims valued up to £4m. Known for clear client communication and accurate, deadline-driven work.
Experience
Trainee Solicitor, Harrington & Cole LLP
Sep 2023 – Sep 2025
- Commercial litigation seat: managed 15+ fast-track and multi-track claims under supervision, including drafting particulars of claim, defences and witness statements.
- Coordinated disclosure on a £4m High Court contractual dispute, reviewing 12,000+ documents in Relativity and preparing the disclosure list.
- Employment seat: drafted settlement agreements and ET3 responses; attended two final hearings with counsel.
- Corporate seat: ran due diligence workstreams on three share acquisitions and prepared completion bibles.
Paralegal, Dispute Resolution, Northgate Legal
Jul 2022 – Aug 2023
- Supported a team of four fee earners on debt recovery and property disputes, preparing court bundles and issuing claims via Money Claim Online.
- Reduced bundle preparation time by around 30% by building a standard index and naming convention adopted by the team.
Education
SQE1 and SQE2 (passed), Solicitors Regulation Authority
2023 – 2025
LLB Law, 2:1, University of Leeds
2019 – 2022
A levels: History A*, English Literature A, Economics A, Altrincham Grammar School
2019
Key skills
Civil Procedure Rules · Drafting pleadings · Legal research (Westlaw, LexisNexis) · Disclosure (Relativity) · Client care · Time recording
Contact details and admission status
Name, phone, email, location (city is enough) and a LinkedIn URL. If you are qualified, say so near the top, e.g. "Solicitor of England & Wales (admitted 2025)" or "Called to the Bar 2022". UK legal CVs should not include a photo, date of birth or marital status.
Personal statement
Three to four lines covering your level, practice area, the type of work you handle and one concrete strength. Tailor it to each firm and practice group rather than writing a generic statement.
Legal experience
List roles in reverse chronological order. For each one, name the practice area or seat and describe matters you worked on, their value or complexity, your responsibility and the outcome. Keep client details confidential: describe the type of client and matter, not names.
Education and qualifications
Law firms still look closely at academic results, so include your degree classification, SQE, LPC, BPTC or Bar Course results, CILEx qualifications, and A level grades if you are early in your career.
Skills, languages and memberships
Add legal research tools, case management systems, relevant languages and memberships such as the Law Society, a regional law society or an Inn of Court. Pro bono work and mooting are worth including for trainee and junior roles.
Legal skills
- Legal research and analysis
- Drafting contracts and pleadings
- Case management
- Negotiation
- Advocacy
- Due diligence
Technical and tools
- Westlaw, LexisNexis, Practical Law
- Case management systems (e.g. Clio, Peppermint)
- eDisclosure (e.g. Relativity)
- Time recording and billing
- Microsoft Word and Excel
Professional skills
- Attention to detail
- Client care and communication
- Managing deadlines
- Commercial awareness
- Confidentiality and professional ethics
Trainee solicitor / graduate
Law graduate (LLB, 2:1) currently completing SQE2, with 12 months of paralegal experience in a busy private client team. Comfortable drafting wills and LPAs, handling client correspondence and preparing probate applications. Looking for a training contract or QWE role where I can develop into a private client solicitor.
Paralegal
Detail-focused paralegal with three years of experience supporting conveyancing and property litigation teams. Manage a caseload of 40+ residential transactions from instruction to completion, including searches, Land Registry applications and SDLT returns. Recognised for accurate file management and fast turnaround times.
Experienced solicitor
Employment solicitor (PQE 6) advising employers on tribunal claims, restructures and senior exits. Run a caseload of 30+ matters with minimal supervision, win or settle the large majority of ET claims before final hearing, and deliver regular HR training sessions that have generated new instructions.
- Lead with your qualification and practice area. A recruiter should know within five seconds whether you are a trainee, NQ, solicitor, barrister or paralegal, and which area you practise in.
- Show matters, not duties. Replace "responsible for drafting documents" with what you drafted, for what kind of matter, of what value, and what happened next.
- Keep it to two pages. Two pages is standard for UK legal CVs. Trainees and graduates can often fit everything onto one strong page.
- Match the language of the job description. Many firms use applicant tracking systems. Mirror the practice areas, systems and skills named in the advert, using a clean, ATS-friendly layout.
- Proofread twice. Accuracy is a core legal skill, and a spelling mistake on a law CV is often treated as evidence of poor attention to detail.
How long should a legal CV be?+
Two A4 pages is the standard length for a UK legal CV. Graduates, trainees and paralegals with limited experience can usually fit everything onto one page, while senior lawyers may use a separate schedule of key matters rather than extending the CV itself.
Should I include A level grades on a law CV?+
Yes, if you are a student, trainee or junior lawyer. Many UK law firms still screen on academic results, so include A level grades and your degree classification. Once you have several years of post-qualification experience, your degree classification is usually enough.
Should a legal CV have a photo?+
No. UK legal CVs should not include a photo, date of birth or marital status. Firms want to avoid any risk of bias, and a photo uses space better spent on experience.
How do I write a legal CV with no experience?+
Lead with your education, then add any legal exposure: vacation schemes, mini-pupillages, pro bono clinics, mooting, legal advice centres and paralegal or legal admin work. Transferable experience from customer-facing or administrative jobs shows client care, organisation and reliability.
How do I show the SQE on my CV?+
Add SQE1 and SQE2 to your education section with the year and result, and list qualifying work experience (QWE) as normal roles under experience. If you are still studying, write "SQE2 – sitting [month/year]".
Is a legal CV different from a law firm application form?+
Many large firms recruit trainees through their own application forms, but a CV is still standard for paralegal, legal secretary, NQ and lateral solicitor roles and for applications through legal recruiters. Keeping an up-to-date CV also makes those application forms much quicker to complete.
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