⚖️ Law
CV writing for legal roles in Europe
How law firms, in-house teams and EU institutions read a legal CV: qualification route, practice areas, jurisdictions, languages and matter experience — with a free check against the norms of the country you are applying to.
Quick answer
A legal CV is read for admission and jurisdiction first. Before anything else a reviewer wants to know where you are qualified, when you qualified, which practice areas you have real matter experience in, and which languages you can work in. Everything else — deals, cases, publications — supports that.
What the CV must contain
- — Qualification and admission (jurisdiction and date)
- — Practice areas, with the strongest first
- — Matter or case experience with your actual role in each
- — Languages, at working-language level
- — Education, including law school and any LLM
- — Publications, pro bono or bar activity where relevant
What gets applications binned
- — Not stating where and when you were admitted.
- — Listing matters without saying what you personally did on them.
- — Breaching client confidentiality — describe the matter type and size, not the client name, unless it is public.
- — Burying languages at the bottom when the role is cross-border.
- — Design-heavy layouts; firms and institutions expect a plain, readable document.
Credentials worth naming
- — Bar admission or roll number (state the jurisdiction)
- — Solicitor / barrister qualification (SQE, LPC, BPTC)
- — Rechtsanwalt / avocat / advocaat admission
- — LLM or specialist diploma
- — Data protection credentials (CIPP/E, CIPM) for privacy roles
Where the demand is
- — Luxembourg (funds, corporate, EU institutions)
- — Brussels (competition, regulatory, EU public affairs)
- — London and Dublin (finance, disputes, post-Brexit advisory)
- — Amsterdam and Frankfurt (banking, capital markets)
Precise and unadorned. Name the instrument, the jurisdiction and your own role. Avoid marketing adjectives — legal reviewers read them as padding.
The vocabulary reviewers screen for
Qualification
admitted · qualified · bar · solicitor · barrister · advocate · avocat · rechtsanwalt · advocaat · notary · roll number · llm
Practice area
corporate · m&a · litigation · dispute resolution · employment · competition · antitrust · tax · banking · finance · real estate · ip
Matter experience
advised · drafted · negotiated · represented · due diligence · closing · transaction · counsel · opinion · hearing · settlement · contract
Jurisdiction and language
jurisdiction · cross-border · eu law · english law · civil law · common law · bilingual · working language · c1 · c2 · native
Work these into real sentences about real work. A keyword list at the bottom of a CV fools nobody and reads as padding.