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Contract attorney skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

James Tomaszewski,

James Tomaszewski

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical contract attorney skills. We ranked the top skills for contract attorneys based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.4% of contract attorney resumes contained litigation as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a contract attorney needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 contract attorney skills for your resume and career

1. Litigation

Here's how contract attorneys use litigation:

Conducted document review involving the review of corporations' internal compliance with multiple federal government agencies in anticipation of litigation.
Reviewed, organized and summarized evidence in complex civil litigation matters and assisted in preparation for summary judgment argument.

2. E-Discovery

Here's how contract attorneys use e-discovery:

Project utilized relativity e-discovery software.
Reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents using the Relativity e-discovery platform, distinguishing the few relevant document from the many irrelevant.

3. Legal Research

Here's how contract attorneys use legal research:

Assisted in all aspects of corporate litigation including drafting discovery, performing legal research, reviewing voluminous documents and preparation of pleadings
Provided support with federal trial defense strategies, conducted legal research, indexed and analyzed voluminous amounts of discovery.

4. Legal Issues

Here's how contract attorneys use legal issues:

Researched and wrote memorandum analyzing legal issues with disassociating from a limited liability company under the Florida Revised Limited LiabilityCompany Act.
Analyzed document content for relevance to legal issues, prioritized and organized documents in preparation for depositions and responding to interrogatories.

5. Real Estate

Real estate is land that has buildings on it. This kind of property consists of permanent improvements either natural or man-made, which include, houses, fences, bridges, water trees, and minerals. There are 4 types of real estate namely; residential real estate, commercial real estate, industrial real estate, and vacant land.

Here's how contract attorneys use real estate:

Provided electronic discovery and pretrial litigation services for multiple legal projects in the commercial litigation and real estate practice areas.
Reviewed document in Korean and English for responsiveness and created privilege log on Relativity regarding an international real estate transaction.

6. Intellectual Property

Intellectual properties refer to individuals' intangible or non-physical wealth, which results from their imaginations and intellect.

Here's how contract attorneys use intellectual property:

Reviewed documents for the purpose of providing discovery responses in litigation arising out of an intellectual property dispute using Concordance software.
Analyze and advise on various intellectual property issues with an emphasis on licensing, intellectual property development, and technology transactions.

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7. Legal Advice

Here's how contract attorneys use legal advice:

Provided legal advice regarding company policies and procedures, federal and state regulations and pending legislation affecting the company's interest.
Provided legal advice internally related to confidentiality, privacy, IP ownership, licensing and related matters.

8. Due Diligence

Due diligence refers to the process of auditing, investigating, or reviewing done to confirm the authenticity of relevant facts. In addition to this, it also refers to the evaluation of a party's financial records to determine whether one should enter into a transaction with the said party or not.

Here's how contract attorneys use due diligence:

Conducted confidential internal due diligence review regarding pledging of collateral to the Federal Reserve on behalf of financial institution.
Prepared privilege logs, summarized depositions, reviewed documents for discovery, and reviewed contracts for due diligence

9. Privilege Logs

Here's how contract attorneys use privilege logs:

Determined whether to withhold documents from production based on privileged contents and authored privilege logs in compliance with regulatory adjudication procedures.
Completed Large Scale Electronic Document Review for Defense of Securities Derivative Action including Review for Privilege and Privilege Logging.

10. Juris

Here's how contract attorneys use juris:

Work with Word, Microsoft Outlook and JURIS computer programs
Earned this position upon achieving a Juris Doctor and successfully sitting for the Bar Exam.

11. QC

Quality control is a set of instructions or procedures to ensure a manufactured product or a service is up to the highest quality standards. This set of quality control criteria are either defined by the clients or the company itself.

Here's how contract attorneys use qc:

Conducted first-level document review, QC review, and privilege review for complex residential mortgage-backed securities litigation.
Patent document review covering several complex issues and privilege; QC level review; utilized Relativity

12. Product Liability

Here's how contract attorneys use product liability:

Contract Attorney Using Relativity, reviewed and redacted German documents for responsiveness, redaction and privilege in pharmaceutical product liability lawsuits.
Pepper Hamilton LLP; document review: defense of pharmaceutical company in connection with product liability actions involving prescription medication.

13. Attorney-Client Privilege

Attorney-client privilege refers to legal principles or concepts that protect certain communications between an attorney and the client and keep such communications confidential even when they contain information relevant to the legal matter.

Here's how contract attorneys use attorney-client privilege:

Analyzed custodial documents for responsiveness, objections, redaction, and attorney-client privilege for major document production in complex antitrust litigation.
Analyze custodial documents for responsiveness, attorney-client privilege, and issue codes for major document production in complex international bankruptcy litigation.

14. Law Firm

Here's how contract attorneys use law firm:

Reviewed documents for legal relevance for large law firm clients using Relativity and AlphaLit for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and pharmaceutical litigation
Performed document review, including privilege determinations for international law firm on large scale corporate merger projects and federal investigations.

15. Class Action Lawsuit

Here's how contract attorneys use class action lawsuit:

Analyzed and evaluated class action lawsuit claims to determine compliance with settlement agreements; reviewed voluminous documents and prepared data summaries.
Performed first level and privilege review of electronic discovery documents for investment management company in class action lawsuit filed by investors.

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What skills help Contract Attorneys find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on contract attorney resumes?

James Tomaszewski

Director of the Center for Professional Development, University of Cincinnati

Demonstrated commitment to a particular practice area, especially experiential learning opportunities such as externships and clinics.

What soft skills should all contract attorneys possess?

James Tomaszewski

Director of the Center for Professional Development, University of Cincinnati

Engagement, Resilience, Responsiveness, Respectfulness, Integrity.

What hard/technical skills are most important for contract attorneys?

James Tomaszewski

Director of the Center for Professional Development, University of Cincinnati

Excellent writing skills.

What contract attorney skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Hanna Royce

Assistant Dean of Career Services, University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law

The key to success is to add new and relevant legal experience to their resume. If graduates are not taking on full-time roles, this could mean completing document review or project work on a contract basis.

Do you want to know more?

List of contract attorney skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a contract attorney resume and required skills for a contract attorney to have include:

Litigation
E-Discovery
Legal Research
Legal Issues
Real Estate
Intellectual Property
Legal Advice
Due Diligence
Privilege Logs
Juris
QC
Product Liability
Attorney-Client Privilege
Law Firm
Class Action Lawsuit
Cost Accounting Standards
Patent Infringement

Civil Litigation
Subpoenas
FCPA
HIPAA
Concordance
Electronic Discovery
Arbitration
Complex Litigation
Legal Memoranda
Trial Preparation
Legal Analysis
Commercial Litigation
Litigation Support
Internal Investigations
Corrupt Practices
Federal Trade Commission
Legal Services

Privilege Review
DOJ
Employment Law
Interrogatories
Family Law
Deposition Preparation
Probate
Summary Judgment
Quality Control Reviews
Court Appearances
Patent Litigation
LLC
FDA
Securities Litigation
Discovery Process
Ringtail

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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