Law Career Development Counselor
Counselors in law career development often hear this question: “Can I just use the same cover letter and resume for multiple applications?” Unfortunately, it is not that simple. To stand out from among the pile of resumes and cover letters, you absolutely need to specifically tailor your materials to each employer. That is especially true when applying to public interest and pro bono positions where your materials needs to show not only an aptitude for the work, but a passion for it as well.
Public Interest and Pro Bono Cover Letters When drafting your cover letter, focus on the mission of the organization or the community that it
serves. Do not just “cut and paste” the mission statement from a website to show that you read through it. Instead, delve into your personal experiences and background to illustrate that you have a long-running commitment to a specific cause or group of clients. This does not have to be in the form of actual work or volunteer experience. Sometimes a personal story can be just as effective. Do you come from a family of immigrants and your family’s experience has motivated you to do immigration work? Are you a first-generation college student interested in improving access to education for others? These are the types of personal connections that show your commitment to specific types of public interest work.
The two most important questions you should try to answer in your cover letter are:
• Why are you interested in working for this organization above all others?
• What contributions are you ready to make immediately that would benefit this organization if they hired you?
In order to answer these questions, you will need to do research on organizations that interest you. Start with their website. Move on to advanced Google searches. Use LinkedIn to find people who currently work there or have worked there in the past and set up informational interviews with those people. Talk to LCD counselors to see if they can connect you with current students or alumni who can further educate you about your potential employer. Use your professors as a resource to gain insight into these organizations. From there, you will be in a much better position to identify and write about personality traits and experiences that make you an ideal candidate.
Public Interest and Pro Bono Resumes
There are a variety of ways that you can inject your commitment to public interest work into your resume. Think outside the box to find things from your experience that you would not typically list on your legal resume to a firm or for a corporate position. You will start with your professional experience, just as with a typical legal resume. Make sure you go on from there to include policy experience, research experience, non-profit experience (even if it was short term), international experience, volunteer experience, and community service. Do not limit yourself to law school experience either. If you did a research paper or thesis paper during your undergraduate education, include that. If the research topic was on something that relates to the organization you are applying to, make sure you include the title of your work. Elaborate on your volunteer experience instead of just listing it as a bullet point. This is especially important if your volunteer experience involved you communicating with members of the public, managing or supervising others, or negotiating. Be sure to reference the specific communities that you worked with during these experiences, especially if they are communities commonly served by the organization that you are applying to.
Federal Legal Resumes
Federal legal resumes will not look the same as the resumes that you use for other legal positions. When you apply online for a federal job, often your resume will end up with an HR person who will review your materials to assess how many of your listed skills align with the desired skills listed in the job posting. To make sure that your resume makes it past the “paper cut” from the HR department, here are some suggestions.
One of the main ways that your federal resume will differ from your typical resume will be under the “Legal Experience” or “Professional Experience” section. Your federal resume should include the full title of your previous position along with 1) the former employer’s address; 2) phone number; and 3) website. Additionally, include, 4) hours you worked per week; 5) dates employed; 6) salary; and 7) the name of your supervisor. Typically, this is the sort of information that would be included on a separate reference form, but this is not the case with the federal resume. You should put this information into the separate reference section in the online application, but do not let that deter you from including this information under the “Legal Experience” section, directly above the description of your specific duties.
If you have questions about what this should look like, feel free to come by Law Career Development to see a sample. You can also go to USA Jobs and use their resume builder to create a resume for federal job applications.
Are you a 1L and feeling like your resume is a little thin?
When you are just starting out, it can be frustrating to create your first legal resume. For almost every 1L that has come into LCD, we are able to find award, honors, activities, skills, and other experiences that have been left off the resume. Ask yourself:
• Have I included the student organizations that I am involved with?
• Have I included awards I have received: merit scholarships, public interest/environmental law scholarships, CALI/Witkin awards?
• Have I included all my experience and leadership roles in student government?
• Are you in the Honors Lawyering Program or STEP? Include it!
• Did you volunteer with the One Justice Bus?
• Did you join any professional bar associations? Add them on!
Finally, make sure you bring your resume into LCD so that we can help you add on other things that you may have missed.
