“Rigorous, analytical, excellent writing skills, team player.” This line appears, give or take a few words, on a large share of the CVs law firms receive. It says nothing, because every candidate writes it and none proves it. Partners know this, and most of them skip the skills section altogether to read the experience.
The problem is not the section, it is its content. A good skills section on a lawyer’s CV lists verifiable know-how, linked to matters, and tools you genuinely master. This article sorts the skills that can be proven, shows how to link each one to an experience and explains what to do with personal qualities.
Technical skills and practice skills
It helps to distinguish two families, which partners read differently.
Technical skills correspond to areas of law and legal mechanisms: contract law, commercial leases, insolvency proceedings, warranty and indemnity packages, employment tribunal procedure, planning litigation. They say what you can work on.
Practice skills correspond to professional tasks: drafting a writ, conducting legal due diligence, negotiating a clause, preparing an oral argument, keeping a procedural calendar, running a data room. They say what you can do with that knowledge.
A student’s CV naturally emphasises the first. From the final placement and the first associate position onwards, it is the second that makes the difference, because it tells the partner how much work they can hand over to you.
Watch your vocabulary
The national internal rules, in article 10, reserve the words “specialist”, “specialised”, “speciality” and “specialisation” for lawyers holding a specialisation certificate. They do, however, allow lawyers to mention main areas of practice, up to three, provided they result from actual and habitual practice. On the CV of a registered avocat, write “practises employment law” or “main area of practice: commercial leases”, never “specialised in employment law” without a certificate. The article CNB specialisation certificate explains the rule in detail.
Drafting, advocacy, negotiation: prove them with a matter
The three most sought-after practice skills are proven in the same way: a document, a context and a result or level of autonomy.
Drafting
This is the skill every firm expects, in advisory work as in litigation. It is not demonstrated by an adjective but by the list of documents you draft.
- Before: “Excellent writing skills.”
- After: “Drafting first versions of share purchase agreements and warranty and indemnity packages, reviewed by the partner before being sent to the buyer’s counsel.”
Advocacy
The word “advocacy” on a CV immediately raises a question: before which courts, how often, alone or in support?
- Before: “Confident speaker, keen on oral advocacy.”
- After: “Independent oral pleadings before the commercial court in debt recovery and interim payment proceedings; pleadings in support of the partner before the court of appeal.”
For a student, a moot court competition, a law clinic or a debating society play the same role, provided they are described precisely.
Negotiation
It is proven by what was negotiated and by your place at the table.
- Before: “Strong negotiation skills.”
- After: “Negotiation of warranty clauses and indemnity caps with the sellers’ counsel, working alongside a senior associate.”
In all three cases, the “after” version respects professional secrecy: it describes the nature of the work, never the client. The method is explained in our article on matters and professional secrecy.
Other practice skills worth highlighting
- Legal due diligence: number of contracts reviewed, type of risks identified, report drafted.
- Procedure management: keeping deadlines, tracking on the RPVA e-filing network, coordinating exhibits.
- Research: databases used, memos produced, legal watch kept for the team.
- Supervision: interns or juniors trained, review of their work.
Legal tools and databases
The tools section is the easiest to fill in honestly, and one of the most closely read by recruiters of junior profiles. It falls into three blocks.
- Procedural tools: RPVA and e-barreau for the ordinary courts, Télérecours for the administrative courts, expert proceedings platforms.
- Legal databases: Dalloz, Lexis 360, Lamyline, Doctrine, Légifrance. Cite the ones you actually use, not every one that exists.
- Practice management and productivity tools: practice management software (time recording, billing), document management, version comparison, virtual data rooms, spreadsheets for timetables and calculations.
Legal artificial intelligence and document automation tools deserve a line if they are part of your practice, with the use you make of them. The article legal tech tools on a lawyer’s CV develops this point.
Languages: real level and working language
Languages are where lawyers’ CVs exaggerate the most, and where exaggeration shows the fastest: a single question in English during the interview is enough.
Two pieces of information make a language credible:
- a measurable level: a level on the Common European Framework of Reference (B2, C1, C2), a score in a recognised test, or the length of a stay or of studies abroad;
- professional use: “working language for negotiations”, “drafting contracts in English”, “the firm’s German-speaking clients”.
Compare:
- Before: “Fluent English, Spanish, basic German.”
- After: “English (C1, one-year LL.M. in the United Kingdom, drafting contracts in English), Spanish (B2, Spanish-speaking family law clients).”
Do not mention a language you could not use for ten minutes in an interview. The pre-filled junior associate CV links each language to a real use.
Qualities not to write as such
Firms do look for personal qualities. The Conseil national des barreaux guide on entering the profession 🔗 lists, among the criteria for recruiting trainee lawyers, motivation, commitment, perseverance, rigour and reliability. But these qualities are proven, not asserted.
Here is how to translate the most common ones:
| Quality asserted | What proves it on the CV | |---|---| | Rigorous | independently keeping a procedural calendar or a conditions precedent checklist | | Analytical | research memos or legal opinions drafted, a legal watch kept for the team | | Works well under pressure | a closing or a hearing prepared at short notice, described soberly | | Team player | working in pairs, training an intern, a cross-practice matter | | Curious | a dissertation, a publication, a training course taken beyond what is required |
The skills section can then be limited to two lines, technical skills and tools, with no qualities, as in the pre-filled business lawyer CV. The article CV for a first associate position shows how the section evolves between law school and the first job.
Once this sorting is done, it still has to be organised legibly: technical skills on one side, tools on the other, languages with their level. The AvocatCV builder provides these blocks and handles the layout for you; the PDF it produces is structured so that screening software reads it without errors, whereas such tools often discard CVs whose sections run into each other.
Frequently asked questions
How many skills should I list?
For the technical part, five to eight areas or mechanisms you actually practise are enough. Beyond that, the reader doubts the depth of each.
Should a lawyer’s CV have a “soft skills” section?
It is not the custom in law firms. It is better to let the experience demonstrate your qualities and keep the skills section for technical skills, tools and languages.
Can I list an area I studied but never practised?
On a student CV, yes, by linking it to the master’s or the dissertation. On an associate’s CV, keep the skills section for areas you practise, and leave the others in the education section.
How do I present a skill I am still acquiring?
Say so: “arbitration procedure (two matters followed in support)” is honest and useful. Recruiters appreciate a candidate who places their level precisely.