Legal Counsel CV: example, skills and writing tips

Legal counsel CV example

The example below shows how the advice in this guide fits together on one page. The person, the companies and all the figures are invented: use the structure, not the content, and replace every detail with your own.

Notice what makes this CV useful to a recruiter: every line says which area of law, which types of contracts or matters, for whom and at what scale. The rest of this guide explains how to build each section in the same way.

Job title and professional summary

Show your area of law

“Legal counsel” on its own is broad: the role can cover contracts, corporate law, employment law, compliance, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, public law or data protection. When it reflects your experience, add your specialism:

Legal Counsel – commercial contracts, 5 years’ experience
Legal Counsel – employment law
Compliance and Data Protection Counsel
Corporate Legal Counsel – M&A
Junior Legal Counsel – commercial law

Do not use a more senior title just to match an ad. A precise specialism lets recruiters, and the search tools they use, see your fit immediately.

Legal counsel, legal adviser, paralegal, lawyer: which title fits?

Legal titles vary between employers and countries, and some are regulated. Choose the title that matches your status and the function you actually perform.

Professional summary example: experienced legal counsel

The professional summary (often called a personal profile in the UK) is three to five lines that state your specialism, your experience, the matters you handle and, if relevant, your international environment.

Employment law counsel with 4 years’ experience supporting HR teams. Advice on individual and collective employment matters, disciplinary procedures, employment law updates and pre-litigation files.

Professional summary example: junior legal counsel

[Master’s degree in business law] graduate with first experience in a company legal department. Contract review, legal research, memos and support on commercial and corporate law matters.

Adapt these examples to your real situation. “Rigorous, motivated and analytical” describes qualities every employer expects, not your expertise: replace it with your area of law and the matters you handle.

Legal counsel CV skills by area

Do not add every legal skill to your CV. Show the area in which you are genuinely operational, phrased so a recruiter can see what you actually do.

A skills line such as this gives little information:

Business law – Legal advice – Compliance – Analytical

This one is far more useful:

Commercial contracts · Negotiation · Pre-litigation · Legal updates · GDPR · Legal English (C1)

Describing your experience and achievements

For each role, state your area of law, the types of matters, the people you advise, your level of autonomy and, where useful, volumes. Follow this order where possible:

context → your own action → tools or method → scope → result

For example: “In a software company selling to businesses (context), I negotiated liability and intellectual property clauses (action) using a clause playbook approved by management (method) on around 120 contracts a year (scope), reducing the number of contracts escalated to the head of legal (result).” The figures in this sentence are illustrative.

Too vague

Contract drafting
Legal advice
Legal watch
Litigation

More informative

Illustrative content.

Drafted and negotiated B2B commercial contracts
Analysed liability, termination and intellectual property clauses
Advised sales teams before signature
Managed pre-litigation files with operational teams
Coordinated with external law firms on litigation

The second version shows your real level of involvement. Distinguish the matters you handle alone from those where you assist a senior lawyer, and do not claim to have represented your employer in court if that was not your role. Add figures when they give context: number of contracts, subsidiaries, countries, trademarks, litigation files, training sessions or teams advised.

Achievement examples to adapt

Replace [X] and [Y] with your own verified figures, or leave the line out if you cannot support it.

• Reviewed around [X] commercial contracts a year for [Y] business units.
• Handled corporate housekeeping for [X] group companies.
• Managed a portfolio of [X] trademarks in [countries], including filings and renewals.
• Reduced average contract review time from [X] to [Y] days with standard templates and a clause guide.
• Ran [X] legal training sessions a year for sales and procurement teams.
• Set up tracking of contract deadlines and commitments for [X] key contracts.

Legal tools: show how you used them

Name the tools you have actually used and what for:

Contract management (CLM) tool: contract lifecycle and renewal tracking
DocuSign: contract signature workflows
SharePoint: legal document management
Excel: tracking of contracts, deadlines and disputes

Legal research databases, entity management tools and compliance tools can be relevant too; databases are often specific to one country, so a few words of context help. Do not list a tool you have only seen demonstrated.

Languages are often decisive for international roles. “English C1: contract drafting and negotiation” is more useful than “fluent English”.

Education and qualifications

Legal education is usually important for these roles. State the qualification, the specialism, the institution and the year:

[Master’s degree] – [business law]
[Institution] — [year]

You can also mention an LL.M., a double degree, a complementary business school programme or a specialist certification. Professional qualifications to practise law differ from country to country: list one only if you hold it or are formally enrolled, state your exact status, and do not present a qualification from one country as equivalent to another country’s.

For junior profiles, a dissertation can be worth a line if its subject is directly relevant, for example contractual liability in B2B SaaS contracts for an IT legal role. For experienced profiles, education should take much less space than the matters you have handled.

Making your legal counsel CV easy to read for ATS

Legal departments, recruitment firms and large companies often use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to search applications. The aim is not to “beat” or trick an ATS: it is to make your expertise explicit and easy to find.

• explicit job titles with your specialism;
• clearly identifiable employers, sectors and dates;
• areas of law and types of contracts written in full;
• languages with their level and use;
• skills written as text, not only as icons or rating bars;
• qualifications and admissions stated exactly.

“Drafted and negotiated SaaS contracts in English and French” is far more precise than “Contract law”.

Tailoring your legal counsel CV to each job

Legal specialisms are different enough that tailoring matters. Your background does not change, but you can adapt the title, the summary, the order of your skills, the roles you detail and the areas of law you bring forward, without ever claiming a specialism you do not master.

Before applying for a commercial contracts, compliance or employment law role, it helps to see which elements of the job description your CV already covers and which are missing. CVReader compares your CV with a job description and highlights the points of correspondence.

Compare my CV with a job description

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Junior legal counsel or career changer

With little professional experience, the same principle applies: be precise about what you have actually done.

• Students and recent graduates: describe internships, work-study contracts and law clinic work like real jobs: contracts reviewed, research carried out, memos written, legal updates, corporate filings. This is more useful than a long list of university courses.
• Career changers: paralegals, legal assistants or contract administrators can bring forward the legal work they genuinely handled, with their level of autonomy.
• Training in progress: state the qualification, the institution and the expected completion date, without presenting it as already obtained.

Legal intern, company legal department: review of commercial contracts, research in business law, legal memos, regulatory monitoring and support on corporate filings.

Trained or working in France?

If your legal background is French, a few adjustments make your CV clearer to English-speaking recruiters.

French qualifications

Keep the French name of your qualification and add a short explanation:

• Master 1 / Master 2 en droit: French university master’s degree in law; the second year (Master 2) is the specialised final year, for example in business law (droit des affaires) or employment law (droit social).
• DJCE – Diplôme de juriste conseil d’entreprise: French university diploma in business law, taken alongside a master’s programme.

There is no automatic equivalence between these diplomas and British, American or other qualifications, so do not present them as equivalent.

Master 2 Droit des affaires (French master’s degree in business law, specialised final year)
[University] — [year]

“Juriste” and “avocat”

In France, “avocat” is a regulated profession reserved for members of a French bar, while “juriste” describes a legal professional who is usually not admitted to practise, often in a company. On an English CV, “juriste d’entreprise” is best translated as legal counsel, in-house counsel or legal adviser, depending on the role; avoid “attorney” or “solicitor”, which refer to admitted professionals. Other useful terms: “direction juridique” is the legal department, “précontentieux” is pre-litigation, “veille juridique” is monitoring legal changes and “RGPD” becomes GDPR. If your expertise is French law, say so explicitly.

Mistakes to avoid and final checklist

Writing only “business law”

State what you actually do.

Listing every university course

For experienced profiles, the matters you handled matter more.

Using abstract vocabulary

“Legal advice”, “compliance” or “contracts” need context.

Not naming the types of contracts

This can be decisive for a recruiter.

Overstating your autonomy

Distinguish the matters you handle alone from those where you assist a senior lawyer.

Claiming expertise in too many areas

A CV with ten legal specialisms can seem less credible.

Forgetting languages

For international contracts, they can be essential.

Checklist before you apply

• My title states my specialism and, if useful, my level of experience.
• My summary fits in three to five lines and names my area of law and the matters I handle.
• Each role shows the area of law, the matters, the people I advise, my autonomy and useful volumes.
• Every figure is accurate and not confidential.
• My professional title matches my real status and qualifications.
• Foreign qualifications keep their original name, with a short explanation and no claimed equivalence.
• Employers and dates are easy to find, and skills are written as text.
• I have brought forward the specialism that matches the job.

Legal counsel CV: frequently asked questions

What skills should I put on a legal counsel CV?

Your real specialism first: contracts, commercial law, employment law, compliance, corporate law, litigation or data protection, for example, with the types of matters you handle.

Should I state the types of contracts I handle?

Yes. Commercial, services, NDA, licence or partnership agreements give far more context than “contract law”.

Should I mention legal English?

Yes, if you really use it to draft, negotiate or analyse contracts, with your level.

Can I call myself a lawyer on my CV?

Only if you hold the corresponding qualification and admission in the country concerned. Otherwise, use a title such as legal counsel or legal adviser that matches your role.

Is a legal counsel resume different from a legal counsel CV?

“Resume” is the usual American term; “CV” is used in the UK and much of the world. For a job application, the advice in this guide applies to both.

Should I include my master’s dissertation?

For a junior profile, yes, if the subject is directly relevant to the role. It usually becomes less important after a few years of experience.