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Career law clerk skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

1 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Karen Teoh,

Jennifer Brobst

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical career law clerk skills. We ranked the top skills for career law clerks based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 24.3% of career law clerk resumes contained litigation as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a career law clerk needs to be successful in the workplace.

8 career law clerk skills for your resume and career

1. Litigation

Here's how career law clerks use litigation:

Conducted a general civil and commercial litigation practice, providing co- representation to either plaintiff or defendant parties in civil litigation.
Assisted with the litigation of approximately 40 insurance defense litigation files regarding personal injury, general liability, and medical malpractice.

2. Legal Issues

Here's how career law clerks use legal issues:

Provide recommendations to the judge on a variety of complex legal issues, including issues of statutory interpretation and first impression.
Conducted interviews and assisted clients with legal issues pertaining to health related immigration, permanency planning and social security matters.

3. Criminal Cases

A criminal case is a court proceeding in which a person is charged with committing a crime against the state or the community. Such individuals are brought for trials, to decide they are guilty or not. There are two kinds of criminal cases misdemeanors and felonies. A misdemeanor is a crime on a lower level like traffic offenses or minor assaults. While felonies are offenses on a higher level.

Here's how career law clerks use criminal cases:

Reviewed arrest reports regarding felony criminal cases, conducted preliminary hearings in Magistrate Court, and conducted probation revocation hearings.
Reviewed and provided legal and financial analysis of discovery documents in white collar criminal cases.

4. Pending Cases

Here's how career law clerks use pending cases:

Assist Magistrate Judge in all aspects of pending cases.
Discussed and analyzed pending cases with the Court.

5. Data Entry

Data entry means entering data into a company's system with the help of a keyboard. A person responsible for entering data may also be asked to verify the authenticity of the data being entered. A person doing data entry must pay great attention to tiny details.

Here's how career law clerks use data entry:

Created document batches, retrieved individual application information, responsible for data entry and generation of mailing labels.
Performed data entry, typing, multiple photocopying as required, filing and handle internal/external telephone inquiries

6. Legal Research

Here's how career law clerks use legal research:

Performed extensive legal research using a wide variety of legal resources.
Conduct legal research and interpret federal statutory and case law.

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7. Direct Calls

Direct calls are connections established with a previous customer or client, most likely a subscriber.

Here's how career law clerks use direct calls:

Greet and direct customers, Making appointments, Direct Calls, File paper, Record messages, Make copies, Fax paperwork
Locate and correct data entry error, or report them to supervisors Answer phones, direct calls, and take messages.

8. Office Machines

An office machine is a mechanical and electronic device that is used to get work done in an organization or establishment, to finish multiple works in a short time, and to enhance productivity. Office machines are essential in running a modern office and range from calculators to printers to computers.

Here's how career law clerks use office machines:

Photocopied and operated a variety of standard office machines.
Performed general office duties such as typing, operating office machines, sorting & distribution of mail to the appropriate area.

What skills help Career Law Clerks find jobs?

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What career law clerk skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Dr. Karen Teoh

Associate Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies, Stonehill College

I would encourage graduates to keep honing their skills in professional communication, global awareness, and emotional maturity/independence. One way to do this is to broaden your horizons as much as possible, using your own initiative. Whether you work, intern, study, travel, or some combination, aim to learn as much as you can about the people and environment in which you are immersed. The more you know about the world around you, whether it ranges as far as one zip code or one continent away, the more you will be able to see things from a variety of perspectives and get a sense of how interconnected our global society is today. Talk to different people; be curious about their work, interests, and viewpoints. Take advantage of your institution's alumni network to request informational interviews. Even as a graduate, you can usually still use your career counseling office's services to get feedback on writing cover letters or speaking well in interviews and presentations.

What soft skills should all career law clerks possess?

Jennifer Brobst

Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University

Two soft skills come to mind immediately: kindness and self-restraint. I have noticed that this generation of new attorneys is less accustomed to taking conflict in stride. What I mean is that in a social media world, one can overreact without facing the other person or simply walk away without responding to a text or post that seems confrontational or disrespectful. In person, there is usually no way to walk away without making the situation worse, so we get better and better at figuring out how to respond with kindness, humor, and patience. That is an excellent skill to have with clients who naturally feel stressed, or with overworked or overzealous opposing counsel or judges.

As to self-restraint, many ethics violations occur among attorneys who feel overwhelmed by their workload. Law school is the best place to learn how to figure out how to manage one's time, and to learn self-restraint -- i.e., when to stop and move on to the next task. This quality of self-restraint will not only help to make sure that new attorneys are reliable on behalf of their clients, but that they are happy with their job for the long-haul. There will always be more clients, but an attorney who knows their limits, but still gets the job done, will be glad to be an attorney throughout their career.

Do you want to know more?

List of career law clerk skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a career law clerk resume and required skills for a career law clerk to have include:

Litigation
Legal Issues
Criminal Cases

Pending Cases
Data Entry
Legal Research

Direct Calls
Office Machines

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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