The corporate legal system is a maze, but you know how to navigate it effectively. Forms are filed, legal agendas are drafted, and bylaws are followed accurately with you working on the legal staff.
Does your resume show corporate legal teams that you’re the right fit?
While you might know corporate law like the back of your hand, we know all too well the corporate hiring system can be challenging. You can use our resume examples and this free cover letter generator to successfully portray your skills so you can get back to what you do best.
Copy this text for your corporate paralegal resume!
Lorelei Gunter, CP
Senior Corporate Paralegal
[email protected]
(123) 456-7890
Danville, CA
CAREER OBJECTIVE
Seasoned senior corporate paralegal with 10+ years of legal experience. Proven track record of enhancing efficiency and cost-effectiveness for 140+ attorneys by transitioning to streamlined software for recordkeeping and contract negotiations. Seeking opportunity to continue driving improved legal results at Coursera.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Corporate Paralegal
Workday
2017 – current
Pleasanton, CA
– Conducted 6+ daily requests for documents from internal and external auditors, regulators, partners, and other stakeholders
– Assessed leases, collaborating across 7 departments on terminations, renewals, and operating expenses
– Generated 56 types of legal documents, including contracts, production services agreements, distribution agreements, and other commercial contracts
– Monitored regulation and guideline changes, submitting reports on pertinent changes to keep 100% of operations up to date
Paralegal
Chegg
2014 – 2017
Santa Clara, CA
– Managed legal research for a team of 6 company and 2 consulting lawyers, receiving commendation for efficiency, accuracy, and attention to detail
– Systematized filing system and research resource availability, increasing attorney efficiency by 12%
– Crafted 64% of information requests from external and internal auditors and regulators
– Drafted 71 types of legal documents, including bylaws, NDAs, contracts, and consultation agreements
Paralegal
Legal Ease LLC
2012 – 2014
Palo Alto, CA
– Developed reports based on attorney requests for 48 cases, developing legal motions, arguments, and other case filings, achieving the desired outcome for 92% of clients
– Taught 8 attorneys cloud-based document management and contract tracking systems, boosting efficiency by 16%
– Mastered 11 types of software, including ClioClio, LexisNexis, LegalEdge, and Bill4Time to maximize workflow
SKILLS
– Legal Software (LexisNexis,
– LegalEdge, e-File)
– Consultation Agreements
– Regulation Adaptations
– Conducting Research
– Multitasking
– Active Listening
– Adaptability
EDUCATION
Associate of Arts
Paralegal Studies
Cal State University, East Bay
2010 – 2012
Hayward, CA
CERTIFICATIONS
– Advanced Certified Paralegal (ACP)
– Certificate in Paralegal Studies
What Matters Most: Your Corporate Paralegal Skills & Experience
Big corporations employ thousands of people and operate across many locations. There are tons of legal implications to manage with that. You’ll want to put the most relevant skills on your resume to show how you can help.
Looking at the type of corporation you’re applying to and the required skills for the job can help narrow it down. For instance, some businesses may need help with their international hiring policy, so your knowledge of i-129 forms will be helpful. Others may be more concerned with tax compliance, so include your knowledge of ss-4 forms.
Here are some popular skills that corporate legal teams look for paralegals to have on a resume.
9 popular corporate paralegal skills
- UCC
- Corporate compliance
- NDAs
- Entity formation
- Legal research
- Mergers
- Financial securities
- PracticePanther
- Clio
Sample corporate paralegal work experience bullet points
Executing legal processes correctly can have a company-wide impact. You’ll want to show you have the necessary skills to help corporations succeed.
Knowledge of the corporate business structure will help you here. If you can quantify how your impact helped the bottom line or contributed to the execution of a legal task that helped a business expansion get approved, you’ll stand out to corporations as someone they need on their team.
Ensure your examples are concise and straightforward. Not every hiring manager will have detailed knowledge of the legal system, so your examples should be understandable for anyone.
Take a look at these samples:
- Maintained and updated legal data for 70 subsidiary companies with 99% accuracy over 6 years.
- Facilitated an annual code of ethics certification for 10,500 employees across locations to reduce compliance errors by 45%.
- Established a new case management system using PracticePanther, leading to a 30% increase in efficiency when retrieving data.
- Used Clio to create a new document automation system that increased accuracy by 40% and filing efficiency by 25%.
Top 5 Tips for Your Corporate Paralegal Resume
- Use the right language to stand out
- Resumes that use action words like “established” or “designed” in descriptions will sound more impactful. For instance, saying you “established a new non-compete clause that eliminated loopholes” sounds much better than saying you “know how to structure non-compete clauses.”
- Emphasize technical skills
- The corporate world has no shortage of technical processes you must follow. Emphasize technical skills whenever possible, like your ability to draft NDAs accurately and efficiently.
- Use metrics
- Metrics related to finances and efficiency are standard in the corporate world. For instance, explaining how you helped strategize litigation contributing to a 26 percent decrease in total manufacturing costs, will make your descriptions more meaningful.
- Descriptions should be short and direct
- The most impactful descriptions are ones that get your point across concisely. For instance, one sentence about how you applied your knowledge in multi-state filing requirements to make reporting taxable income 39% more efficient will go a long way.
- Check for errors
- The corporate world is all about managing the small details. Your resume template is only as good as what’s on it. Make sure your resume is free of grammatical errors before submitting it to show you have the skills to accurately perform tasks like drafting agendas and filing memos.
Be as job-specific as possible about how your previous experience prepared you for the corporate environment. Something like maintaining legal databases with 99 percent accuracy can show you have the detailed mindset businesses will value.
Limit your resume to one page. The corporate environment is fast-paced, and hiring managers have tons of resumes to go through. Concise and impactful descriptions with the most relevant skills, like your knowledge of corporate compliance, will help you stand out.
Corporate paralegals will benefit from having a cover letter. In fact, you can use it to your advantage by designing it to add to your resume. Your cover letter can fill in gaps like additional details on how you manage corporate filings or why your experiences make you a great fit for the company’s needs.
Stephen is the co-founder and CEO of BeamJobs. He started his career in data fulfilling the dream of little kids everywhere: working for an insurance company. He then moved on to work in edtech for a company called Chegg before venturing out to start BeamJobs. Things have come a long way after countless “learnings” (fancy word for mistakes), and BeamJobs has now helped 2.5M+ people create their perfect resume. Stephen and BeamJobs have been featured on awesome sites like Business Insider, Chicago Tribune, Dallas News, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Press, Zendesk, HubSpot, and loads more.
