Politics and Your Resume

In a recent letter to the Ethicist in the New York Times, a hiring attorney asked if it was ethical to reject law student internship applications based solely on their membership to the Federalist Society. While the columnist responded that it is not ethical to reject a job candidate based solely on their politics, the attorney ultimately decided to remove the Federalist Society members from the pool of equally qualified job seekers. Organizations such as the Federalist Society, the National Lawyer's Guild, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) can cause extreme reactions in people. Hiring organizations may also judge a job seeker if they worked for a particular candidate on a political campaign. While one hopes that most employers would not reject a candidate based solely on politics, job seekers should always remember that there is that possibility when listing a political affiliation or membership to a potentially divisive organization on their resume.

The decision to include or omit certain political activities from a resume is ultimately up to the job seeker and there are valid arguments to each side. Many candidates decide to keep their political affiliations on their resume because they either prefer to work for an organization that supports their beliefs or would rather work for an employer that would not judge employees based on politics. Others decide to remove any hint of politics from their application because they would prefer politics not distract the employer from their other experience and skills. When deciding how to proceed, all candidates should ask themselves one question: Would I be comfortable discussing this activity during an interview? If you decide to include memberships to controversial organizations on your resume, be prepared for the possibility of having your beliefs challenged during an interview. If you are not comfortable discussing politics during a job interview, you may want to remove any political activities from your resume.

For further reading:
"How Public Should Your Politics Be?" Student Lawyer. February 2009, Vol. 37, No. 6
"The Ethicist: Taking on Unlikables." New York Times. 4 December. 2009
"Hiring Lawyer Rejects Federalist Society Members - and Columnist's Advice." ABA Journal. 7 December. 2009

Frequent Resume Mistakes and Questions: Part II

We previously went over some of the most frequent resume questions and mistakes our office encounters. Below are a few more resume issues we often see in the CSO.

Law School and Undergraduate GPA:
You should list your law school GPA on your resume only if it is a 3.0 or higher. If you decide not to include your law school GPA, then you should omit your undergraduate GPA too.

Capitalization
1. Capitalize the official name of a document, but not the kind of document. For example:
- Completed Children in Need of Services (CHINS) petitions.
- Drafted motion to dismiss, memoranda, and interrogatories.

2. Capitalize a person's title when it precedes the name, not when it is used in place of a name. For example:
- Assisted Attorney Callahan with all aspects of trial preparation.
- Assisted attorney with all aspects of trial preparation.

3. General areas of law should not be capitalized. For example:
- Performed research on various areas of law, including land use and real estate.

Bullet Points
Our office encourages all students and graduates to use the bullet point format to describe work experience rather than the paragraph format. Bullet points give the resume a clean look and make it easier to read. The paragraph format takes the reader more time to read.

Converting to a PDF
Before you email your resume and cover letter, always convert the documents into a PDF. This insures that the document's format can not be altered.


Read Frequent Resume Mistakes and Questions: Part 1

Tips for Writing the Perfect Cover Letter

1. Use a business letter format.

Please be sure to follow the format listed in the CSO Handbook when writing a cover letter. Always include your contact information as well as the employer’s address and hiring contact name and title, if available.

2. Tailor the letter specifically to the employer.

Form letters do not get interviews. Unless the posting you are responding to is a blind job posting and no employer information is given, your letter should be specifically addressed to the employer and hiring contact. If no hiring contact is listed, contact the employer to see who the letter should be addressed to. If you are still unable to get a specific name, use “Dear Sir/Madam”. Never use “To Whom it May Concern”.

Also, be sure to state why you are particularly interested in the firm/organization and include statements that reflect your knowledge of the employer’s work.

3. Address their needs, not your own.

It really is about them, not you. The cover letter should focus on how your skills and experience will help them, not on how the job will enhance your skills and ultimate career goals.

4. Do not recite your resume.

You do not need to repeat your entire resume in your cover letter, only go over those experiences that are particularly relevant to the hiring criteria. Now is also your chance to highlight those strengths and skills that may not be evident from reading your resume.

5. Back up your statements with examples.

Just saying it doesn’t make it so. Always follow a statement about your skills with an illustrative example. For instance, after stating that you have strong multi-tasking abilities, give an example from a previous job where you successfully completed multiple projects at once.

6. Keep it concise.

Limit your cover letter to one page.

7. Proofread, proofread, proofread.

We cannot stress this enough. In addition to having your cover letter reviewed by a counselor in the Career Services Office, have one or two other people check it for typos. Especially make sure both the employer and hiring contact name are spelled correctly.

Other things to keep in mind:

Paper & Font - Should be same as resume (bond paper, same font and text size as resume.)
Enclosure - Include the word "Enclosure(s)" or "Attachment(s)" at the bottom indicating resume, writing sample, etc. enclosed.
Email Tip - When sending your cover letter by email, attach it to the email along with your resume. Do not make the main text of the email your "cover letter".

Still have questions? Post them in the comments or email the CSO!

What are memorandums? Frequent Resume Mistakes and Questions

During the Fall Recruitment Season our office receives many resume questions and requests for critiques. From our experience, below are the most frequent resume errors and questions.

Juris Doctor or Juris Doctorate?
When you receive your diploma from New England Law it will say that you received a "Juris Doctor degree." Thus, we advise all students to list their degree as "Juris Doctor" instead of "Juris Doctorate."

Memorandum and Memoranda
If you drafted one memo, refer to it as a memorandum. If you drafted more than one memo, refer to them as memoranda. The use of memo and memos is considerably less formal and there is no such word as "memorandums".

Words Not Caught Bye Spellcheck
We all know that spellcheck is not perfect. It may want to turn your Juris Doctor into a Jurist Doctor and it does not catch misuse of homonyms (i.e. bye instead of by) . It will also miss those misspellings that also happen to be words. Below are a couple of frequent errors we find on student resumes:

Trail instead of Trial
Complied instead of Compiled
...and Public without the "l" is a completely different word and probably not one you'd like to have on your resume!

Spellcheck can be great, but please remember to have one or two others look over your resume for those errors that spellcheck may not find.

Listing your Clinic and Study Abroad Program
Your clinic should be listed under your legal experience section. Ask the clinical office for information about how to list your job description and job title.

You may list your study abroad two ways: either as a subsection under your school section or as a separate school. Here are two examples:

New England School of Law, Boston, MA
Candidate for Juris Doctor, May 2010
Study Abroad: National University of Ireland, Program in International and Comparative Human Rights Law, Galway, Ireland, Summer 2008
or
National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Study Abroad Program in International and Human Rights Comparative Law, Summer 2008

Listing Publications
Publications should be listed as a subsection under your school like so:

Publications: Subsidize Housing and HUD Projects: Economic Confinement on Low-Income Families, New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement, Volume 31, Winter 2004-2005

Note: If you do not yet know the publication date, write Publication Pending where you would normally list the volume and issue.

One page or two?
Your resume should be one page. The only exception to this rule is if you have five years or more of professional work experience between college and starting law school.

But I have a lot of experience and it won't fit onto one page!

Try the following:

1. Make your margins smaller. Adjust your margins to at least .5" on each side.
2. Make your font size smaller. The smallest your font size can be is 10 points.
   
3. List your address on one line running across the page.

It is still going onto a second page.
Send it to us! The career counselors in the CSO are well versed in the tricks to the trade as to how to get a resume onto one page. We are always here to help. Please feel free to email your resume to cso@nesl.edu to be reviewed by a counselor.

For more tips on how to write the perfect legal resume, read the resume section of our handbook!