Corporate Lawyer CV Guide + Tips + Example
- 30% higher chance of getting a job
- 42% higher response rate from recruiters
Our customers have been hired at:*Foot Note
Securing a position at a top law firm or as in-house counsel for a leading company can be challenging, to say the least. So, you need a CV that will successfully set you apart from the competition. But how do you go about drafting such a document? We’re here to show you. Use this guide to create an impressive CV for a corporate lawyer role that highlights your top skills and achievements to land an interview for your target job.
Get started by editing this corporate lawyer CV sample, or peruse our collection of 40+ CV templates to find the best option for you.
Corporate lawyer CV sample (text version)
Shirley McCollum
555 555 5555
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Summary Statement
Accomplished corporate lawyer with over a decade of experience providing expert legal counsel to businesses on complex transactions, regulatory compliance and corporate governance. Proven track record of negotiating favorable deals, mitigating risks and ensuring legal compliance. Adept at collaborating with cross-functional teams and delivering strategic solutions to drive business success.
Core Qualifications
- Corporate law
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Contract negotiation
- Securities regulation
- Corporate governance
- Due diligence
- Legal research
- Risk management
- Regulatory compliance
- Dispute resolution
Education
- Stetson University College of Law Gulfport, FL
J.D. Law - University of South Florida Tampa, FL
Bachelor of Science Business Management
Work Experience
November 2018 – Current
PSCU Financial Services – Tampa, FL
Corporate Attorney
- Advise clients on mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, resulting in successful transactions worth over $100 million.
- Draft documents for acquisition and merger cases and ensure every aspect complies with the law.
- Report to senior partners about how certain cases are progressing and recommend new courses of action for when a case has become stagnant.
- Negotiate complex commercial contracts, minimizing legal risks and ensuring favorable terms for clients.
September 2015 – October 2018
Citi – Tampa, FL
Corporate Lawyer
- Drafted, reviewed and negotiated contracts, agreements and other legal documents to protect the interests of 12 clients while ensuring legal compliance.
- Ensured all important documents were filed with the Secretary of State before deadlines.
- Acted as an executor for over a dozen companies’ estates.
- Provided legal counsel on corporate governance matters, including board meetings and shareholder relations.
June 2012 – August 2013
Wilkes & Associates – Tampa, FL
Assistant Counsel
- Worked with senior lawyers to determine probable outcomes of cases.
- Selected jurors and complied with all state regulations concerning trial proceedings.
- Gathered evidence and worked with an investigative team to strengthen 10 cases.
- Researched and interpreted laws, rulings and regulations to advise clients on business and legal transactions.
Conference Presentations
- Contract Review and Negotiation Today – (2023)
- Business Ethics in the Corporate Culture; An Examinations of Ethics in the Practice – (2022)
- Client Representation Advisement Conference – (2019)
Conference Attendance
- Preventing Recurring Errors on Appeal – Prosecutorial Error, online – (2023)
- Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), Las Vegas, NV – (2022)
- Legal Week 2022, NY, NY – (2022)
- Clio Cloud Conference, virtual – (2022)
Professional Affiliations and Memberships
- American Bar Association (ABA) – (2023)
- Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) – (2022)
- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) – (2021)
Certifications and Licenses
- Attorney License, Florida State Bar Association – (2023)
- Certified Corporate Attorney (CCA) – (2023)
- Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor – ( (CM&AA) – (2021)
- Certified Commercial Contracts Manager (CCCM) – (2018)
Profession Relevant Skills
- Intricate understanding of business law at state and national levels.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills to aid in properly presenting positions, arguing cases and getting positive outcomes for clients.
- Proficient in legal research, intellectual property protection, dispute resolution and management.
- Strong background in due diligence, drafting transaction documents and coordinating with internal and external stakeholders.
- Ability to network and develop connections while at conferences and presentations.
- Experience using accounting and data mining software and tools such as LexisNexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law.
- Complex problem-solving skills to help both sides settle with negotiations.
Hobbies and Interests
While my career takes up most of my time, I do enjoy jet skiing when I have the opportunity. I own my gear, so when friends or family members are in town, we always head over to the beach for a few hours of relaxation.
5 essentials of a top CV for a corporate lawyer
Contact details
Without contact information, hiring managers cannot invite you for an interview. Create a section at the top of your CV for your contact details and display them as follows: Your full name, then your city, state and ZIP code, followed by your phone number and professional email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile and professional website, add those as well.
Personal statement
A personal statement, also called a professional summary, is your chance to shine in a few short sentences. It’s where you introduce yourself to the hiring manager and pitch your best technical and soft skills, as well as your relevant work experience. Your CV summary should also include one or two of your most notable professional accomplishments to grab the hiring manager’s attention. If your work experience is limited, consider using an objective statement instead.
Skills
Hiring managers want to know if your skills match their needs. Show them you have what it takes by creating a separate section and using bullet points to display your top hard and soft skills — from contract drafting and document filing to problem-solving and time management — as demonstrated by our corporate lawyer CV sample.
Work history
Your corporate lawyer CV must have a detailed employment history section, even if you don’t have much work experience in the field. List current and previous employers in reverse-chronological order and provide company names, locations and the dates you worked for each. Add three bullet points of quantifiable achievements for every job you include. If you don’t have an extensive employment history, list part-time jobs, internships, summer associate programs and volunteer work — anything that shows you have relevant experience.
Education
Add all the educational institutions you’ve attended after high school in an education section in your CV for a corporate lawyer role. Use bullet points for each school and display the name of the degree, the school name and the year you graduated, unless it was more than 10 years ago.
See why My Perfect Resume is a 5-star resume builder
Action words for a stand-out corporate lawyer CV
Strong action words help to set you apart and make your CV shine by painting a clear picture of your experience and accomplishments. Combine them with numbers and metrics to impress a hiring manager.
Here’s a short list of powerful action verbs for a corporate lawyer CV:
- Advise
- Direct
- File
- Draft
- Report
- Recommend
- Negotiate
- Inform
- Guide
- Comply
- Represent
- Appraise
- Assist
- Verify
- Dissolve
- Write
- Review
- Oversee
- Document
- Counsel
- Analyze
- Research
- Conduct
- Mediate
- Collaborate
- Consult
Want more inspiration? Explore our library of 300+ CV examples to get ideas for how you can structure, format and elevate your CV. You’ll even find other specific lawyer CV examples.
Need an impressive CV for a corporate lawyer job now? Our CV Maker has all the tools you need to create a professional CV in minutes. All you have to do is fill in one of our templates. Then you can make edits as you go, download your document and save it as a PDF, .doc or plain text file when you’re finished. Yes, it’s that simple!
Top skills for a corporate lawyer CV
To determine which skills to list on your CV, review the job description carefully and match the required skills to your competencies and traits.
As a corporate lawyer, you might include some of the following skills on your CV:
- Knowledge of federal, state and local statutes
- Business and commercial litigation
- Mediation
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Contract law
- Intellectual property law
- Employment law
- Corporate governance
- Securities
- Tax law
- Risk management
- Corporate structuring
- Due diligence assessments
- Dispute resolution
- Legal research and analysis
- Data gathering
- Legal writing
- Contract drafting
- Investigative skills
- Court document preparation
- Document filing
- Providing legal counsel
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Westlaw
- Client relationship management
- Negotiation
- Interpersonal skills
- Verbal and written communication
- Critical thinking
- Problem-solving
- Analytical thinking
- Organization
- Attention to detail
- Time management
- Collaboration
Certifications for a corporate lawyer CV
Like other lawyers, corporate lawyers must earn a law degree or Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school and pass a state’s bar exam to practice. Certification is not required but can be very valuable and give lawyers a competitive edge over other job candidates. By completing a specialty certification program, you can demonstrate that you have specialized knowledge and training in your specific area of law. This way, you can establish yourself as a specialist in key aspects of corporate law.
There are several board and specialist certifications available for corporate lawyers. Here is a sample that could boost your CV:
Pair your CV with a matching cover letter
Corporate lawyer CV FAQ
1. What are some tips for creating a CV for a corporate lawyer that stands out?
Keep the following tips in mind to craft a corporate lawyer CV that gets noticed by prospective employers:
- Make sure your professional summary offers a succinct snapshot of what you can bring to the table – it should be no more than six lines in length. Remember to include information that will grab hiring managers’ attention and keep them reading.
- Always tailor your CV to the corporate lawyer job you’re applying for. Read the job description carefully and include keywords and phrases that apply to you in your CV.
- Don’t forget to include past accomplishments in your work experience section, not only duties and responsibilities. Use numbers and metrics to make your achievements more concrete and tangible.
- Begin all bullet points in your experience section with strong action words rather than a generic phrase like “Responsible for…”
- Unless you have recently graduated, do not include your GPA. However, always include any honors you have earned, such as magna cum laude.
- Consider including additional CV sections such as “Professional associations and memberships,” “Certifications,” “Conferences and speaking engagements” and “Volunteer work” if it strengthens your application. One key difference between a CV and a resume is that there’s space to incorporate extra sections like these in your CV, whereas a resume usually sticks to the basics.
- Keep the layout and formatting of your CV neat and professional, and be sure to use an easy-to-read font.
- Read over your CV a few times before submitting it. Don’t rely on spellcheck to catch all errors.
For more ideas on what to include in your CV to win over hiring managers, take a look at our corporate lawyer CV sample.
2. How do you write an objective statement for a corporate lawyer CV?
As you can see in our corporate lawyer CV sample, it’s now more common to include a professional summary statement in place of an objective statement in your CV. The only time you would include an objective statement is if you’re applying for your first job, making a career change or moving to a new city. A professional summary is a short paragraph of between 50 and 200 words that aims to pique the interest of hiring managers so they’ll call you for an interview. When you write this section, you should try to answer three questions: Who are you? What makes you a perfect fit for the role? How can you benefit the company? The most effective statements match a candidate’s skills and qualifications to the requirements in the job description. You can write your summary from the first-person perspective, but limit the use of “I” to avoid repetition.
3. How long should a corporate lawyer CV be?
Hiring managers are busy people. They don’t have hours to review applications. So the longer your CV is, the greater the chance they’ll just skim it and potentially miss critical information. It’s therefore best to keep your CV for a corporate lawyer job to no more than two pages if possible. That said, there is no specific limit for CV length, so if your CV has to be a little longer in order to cover all your relevant credentials, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. The key is to leave out any irrelevant content and only focus on work experience and skills that speak directly to the job’s requirements.
Do’s and don’ts for building a corporate lawyer CV
- Use measurable achievements to describe your corporate lawyer skills and experience.
- Use action words to add impact to your CV for a corporate lawyer role.
- Tailor your CV to your target corporate lawyer job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your corporate lawyer CV.
- Format your corporate lawyer CV so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your corporate law experience and skills.
- Boast about your “unparalleled” expertise in the area of business law.
- Include irrelevant personal information, such as your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience that aren’t relevant to a corporate lawyer role.
- Forget to proofread. A corporate lawyer CV with errors is unprofessional.
Top 4 tips for acing a corporate lawyer interview
Learn about the company before your interview.
It’s important to learn about a business’s history, goals, values and people before the interview. It shows genuine interest, dedication and commitment — traits that hiring managers look for in top job candidates. Plus, getting a glimpse of the company’s culture before you’re interviewed will give you an idea of what to expect on arrival so that you can feel more confident.
Practice.
A little practice now will go a long way during your interview. To practice for your interview, start by reviewing the most common interview questions, such as:
- If there was one area you’ve always wanted to improve upon, what would that be?
- How has your education prepared you for your career?
- Explain how you would be an asset to this organization.
It’s also worth giving some thought to behavioral interview questions, like:
- Describe a situation in which you had to arrive at a compromise or guide others to a compromise.
- Give me a specific occasion in which you conformed to a policy with which you did not agree.
Ask a friend or family member to interview you so you can get comfortable with the questions and imprint the answers in your mind. Ask them for feedback on your performance and answers, and write down any suggestions that resonate with you. You’ll feel confident and ready when it’s time for the real thing.
Ask questions.
Your interviewer will ask if you have any questions about the role at the end of your session. You should always have at least three questions ready to ask them. Job candidates who don’t ask questions are less likely to get hired because hiring managers assume they aren’t interested in the position and won’t put much thought into it.
Some questions you might ask for a corporate lawyer job are:
- What would you consider to be the biggest challenges and opportunities for the firm/company’s legal department?
- Are there any specific areas of corporate law that I would be expected to focus on?
- What is the culture like at the company? How does the organization foster a collaborative work environment?
Have references ready.
Having professional references ready before your interview will prepare you in case the hiring manager decides to move forward. Create a list of two former colleagues and a former manager who would be willing to speak about your legal knowledge and abilities and who you know will give you a stellar review. It’s even better if they’re open to writing a letter of recommendation for you.
If you are applying for your first full-time paid job in corporate law, it’s acceptable to get contacts from a former professor, internship manager, associate program leader or classmate who will provide positive feedback about your ability to perform the job.
Resume examples for the next step in your law career
Cover letter examples for the next step in your law career
How we reviewed this article
Since 2013, we have helped more than 15 million job seekers. We want to make your career journey accessible and manageable through our services and Career Center’s how-to guides and tips. In our commitment to bring you a transparent process, we present our Editorial Process.
Sources
Rate this article
Corporate Lawyer CV Example
Dayle Kavonic is a professional online writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience in digital content creation. She has written extensively on the topics of resume and cover letter writing, job hunting and career development.