How to Write a Legal Job Description

Your legal job description is your opportunity to market your firm to potential attorneys and legal candidates. Crafting an effective and appealing legal job description will be critical to ensuring you attract the best talent for your open position and is the first step in the process for hiring the right person. A poorly-written job description could result in the best candidates deciding not to apply to your opening. You need to make a great first impression!

A legal job description should provide clear and concise information about the opening you are trying to fill. It should include relevant details about the practice area, years of experience, and educational background you would like applicants to have, as well as any special skills or experience you are looking for. This information helps legal candidates determine if they are qualified for the position. The job description should also include some information about your law firm or company, including culture, benefits, and salary range.

A legal job description should include a compelling legal job title, a job summary, and the responsibilities and skills. The legal job title should get the attention of legal job seekers and should provide a quick snapshot of the role. The legal job title should not be too generic or candidates may scroll past your job listing.

The legal job summary should include the responsibilities of the position, office location, and details about your law firm. This is where you let candidates know what will be expected of them as well as what makes your law firm stand out from others. Make sure you provide information about your workplace that will compel candidates to apply. Let candidates know what makes your law firm great!

The legal responsibilities and skills is often a bulleted list in a legal job description. This is where you would include experience required in a specific legal area, bar admissions needed, as well as skills such as “great writing and oral advocacy abilities”. You should keep the list concise and do not need to include general responsibilities or skills.