Paralegal Resume Examples and Writing Tips
Supports attorneys with research, drafting, e-discovery, and case management across litigation, corporate, or transactional practice. This page covers what hiring managers look for in a Paralegal resume, the keywords that ATS systems scan for, example bullets you can adapt, and the mistakes that come up most often.
What hiring managers look for
Recruiters spend roughly seven seconds on a first pass through your resume. For Paralegal roles, they're scanning for evidence of legal research (westlaw, lexisnexis), drafting and cite-checking, e-discovery (relativity) and a clear picture of the scope you owned.
Core skills hiring managers expect
- Legal research (Westlaw, LexisNexis)
- Drafting and cite-checking
- E-discovery (Relativity)
- Case management
- Document review
- Deposition preparation
ATS keywords for Paralegal resumes
Applicant tracking systems rank resumes partly on how well the text overlaps with the job description. Make sure your Paralegal resume includes these phrases somewhere, ideally inside an achievement bullet rather than buried in the skills section.
Example Paralegal resume bullets
Each bullet below follows the same shape: an active verb, a specific scoped object, and a measured result. Use them as templates and adapt the numbers and scope to your own work. Don't copy them verbatim. Recruiters notice, and so do ATS systems that flag duplicate text.
Managed e-discovery on a $40M IP dispute; reviewed 280k documents in Relativity using a TAR workflow that cut billable review hours 45%.
Drafted and cite-checked appellate brief portions filed in the 9th Circuit; the lead partner adopted 90%+ of the drafted argument structure.
Built a closing-binder template now used firm-wide; cut average post-closing turnaround from 11 to 4 business days.
Common Paralegal resume mistakes
The mistakes we see most often on Paralegal resumes aren't spelling. They're structural choices that quietly hide your impact. Run your draft against this list before you send it.
- Listing "legal research" without practice area, matter type, or volume
- Skipping software (Relativity, NetDocuments, iManage), which are heavy ATS signals
- Missing certifications (CP, ACP), which are short, easy wins
Score your Paralegal resume in about a minute
Upload your resume. The AI checks it against the 12 keywords above, flags weak bullets, and rewrites them with quantified outcomes.