Home Legal Executive Resume template
Legal Executive resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what legal executives actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most legal executives should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
I am a legal executive with several years of experience managing client matters from instruction to resolution in Australian firms. I draft contracts, leases, wills and court documents, conduct legal research, and prepare briefs to counsel while keeping files compliant with costs disclosure and matter administration requirements. I work closely with solicitors and barristers to keep matters moving and clients informed.
Key skills
- Legal research and advice notes
- Drafting contracts, leases, wills and court documents
- Litigation and dispute support
- Regulatory and administrative law
- Regulatory compliance
- Costs disclosure and client onboarding
- Briefs to counsel and disclosure schedules
- LEAP Legal Software
- Smokeball
- Clio
- Microsoft 365
- iManage
- Client relationships and advisory
- Attention to detail
- Time and deadline management
Experience: example bullet points
- Managed a portfolio of 40 active files across leasing, wills and estate matters, maintaining costs disclosure and client reporting so no matter fell outside agreed timeframes.
- Drafted and reviewed commercial leases and contracts, incorporating special conditions and resolving inconsistencies before execution.
- Prepared briefs to counsel and disclosure schedules for contested matters in the Local Court and VCAT, reducing the time solicitors spent on document review.
- Conducted legal research and drafted advice notes on regulatory and administrative law issues, which supported solicitors in providing timely client advice.
- Liaised with courts, registries and opposing parties to track case progress, ensuring filing deadlines were met.
- Onboarded new clients, explaining costs disclosure and engagement terms, and set up matters in LEAP and iManage with accurate metadata.
- Trained two junior legal assistants on document management and drafting templates, improving consistency across the team.
Education
Diploma of Legal Services or a law degree, combined with several years of supervised practice experience in a legal environment.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Legal Executive
- Legal research
- Drafting and contracts
- Litigation support
- Regulatory compliance
- Administrative law
- Costs disclosure
- Client onboarding
- Brief to counsel
- Disclosure schedule
- Settlement statement
- Affidavit
- Subpoena
- Discovery
- LEAP Legal Software
- Smokeball
- Clio
- iManage
- Microsoft 365
- Law Society
- Legal Services Commission
- VCAT
- NCAT
- Local Court
- Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
- Legal Profession Uniform Law
- Wills and estates
- Commercial leases
- Court documents
- Matter administration
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.