Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Criminal defense lawyer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

June Forrest,

June Forrest

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical criminal defense lawyer skills. We ranked the top skills for criminal defense lawyers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.7% of criminal defense lawyer resumes contained trial preparation as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a criminal defense lawyer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 criminal defense lawyer skills for your resume and career

1. Trial Preparation

Trial preparation is the practice of gathering sufficient raw material for a court case. This preparation is done to make the bases of a case stronger by bringing the facts to light in a way that will give the concerned law bodies a better comprehension of the entire scenario. The method for preparing for a case may differ depending upon its nature.

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use trial preparation:

Organized trial preparation and support including witness lists, exhibits, and trial binders.
Conducted trial preparation (i.e., investigation, motions, legal research ).

2. Litigation

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use litigation:

Prepared and drafted various litigation pleadings, memorandums and orders.
Represented global airline as plaintiff in favorably settling complex trade secrets litigation against competitor.

3. Law Firm

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use law firm:

Perform various legal tasks as the sole paralegal in the law firm.
Incorporated law firm and managed daily operations of law firm.

4. 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 criminal defense lawyers use criminal cases:

Performed a variety of tasks needed to settle cases and assisted in the preparation of criminal cases for trial.
Investigated criminal cases, through client interviews, witness interviews, scene visits, discovery review.

5. Legal Research

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use legal research:

Conduct legal research and review court decisions/rendered legal opinions.
Performed client and witness interviews, conducted legal research, prepared legal briefs and motions.

6. Federal Courts

Federal courts refer to designated law system units mandated to rule cases that involve the constitution, the federal laws, cases entailing bankruptcy, the general conduct of the ambassadors and public ministers in treaties, and crimes that involve different states.

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use federal courts:

Draft, edit and file motions and memorandums in various state and federal courts.
Tried cases in State and Federal courts; did appeals for both State and Federal courts.

Choose from 10+ customizable criminal defense lawyer resume templates

Build a professional criminal defense lawyer resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your criminal defense lawyer resume.

7. Subpoenas

Subpoenas are formal and legal documents issued mostly by a court or some other government agency that demands the presence of the person the document is addressed to, to show up at court. Subpoenas are issued to individuals whom the court wants to appear either as a witness in a particular case in order to testify or to provide any evidence such as an object or a document.

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use subpoenas:

Prepared legal documents, including notice of appearance, attorney representation letters, motions, subpoenas, and affidavits.
Prepare and serve subpoenas for document production.

8. Legal Briefs

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use legal briefs:

Researched and analyzed case law in order to write legal briefs and memorandum.
Constructed Spreadsheets of Legal Briefs and other Legal Research in order to create a system for future reference.

9. Jury Trials

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use jury trials:

Conducted over 85 Jury trials as lead counsel in both State and Federal Court.
Conducted jury trials in Superior Court and State Court resulting in some acquittals.

10. Client Interviews

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use client interviews:

Assisted in client interviews; determined client eligibility; reviewed arrest videos.
Conduct client interviews, case evaluation and management.

11. Demand Letters

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use demand letters:

Typed correspondence, drafted demand letters, discovery requests and sensitive materials.
Represent tenants to resolve pending controversies with landlords by interviewing clients, drafting demand letters and negotiating settlements

12. Family Law

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use family law:

Advised and processed over 6,500 family law cases from Domestic cases to Wills and Powers of Attorney.
Prepared marital settlement agreements while working simultaneously with two customers under the supervision of the Family Law Facilitator staff.

13. Proofread

Proofreading simply carefully checking your text for possible errors like typographical errors or mistakes in grammar, style, and spelling before it can be published or shared. This is generally known as the very last stage of any writing process when you need to fix minor spelling and punctuation mistakes, typos, formatting issues,

and inconsistencies.

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use proofread:

Draft, proofread and ensure filing and service of criminal motions.

14. Court Dates

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use court dates:

Maintain calendar for all court appearances, keep clients advised of court dates, and calendaring all deadlines.
Contacted courts to confirm scheduled court dates and obtain case status.

15. Legal Issues

Here's how criminal defense lawyers use legal issues:

Conducted investigative research on legal issues related to international intellectual property and trade as well as IP and international trade matters.
Conducted interviews and assisted clients with legal issues pertaining to health related immigration, permanency planning and social security matters.

5 Criminal Defense Lawyer resume examples

Build a professional criminal defense lawyer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 5+ resume templates to create your criminal defense lawyer resume.

Create my resume

Build a professional resume in minutes using this template.

What skills help Criminal Defense Lawyers find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on criminal defense lawyer resumes?

June Forrest

Assistant Dean of Career Services, Seton Hall University School of Law

Experiential skills stand out---reading, research, and writing skills that have been honed through judicial and other externships or summer positions stand out on the resumes of students seeking first jobs. In the trenches, litigation skills and other practice skills stand out on the resumes of lawyers seeking new gigs. Everyone wants an experienced lawyer who can present their case and win!

What soft skills should all criminal defense lawyers possess?

June Forrest

Assistant Dean of Career Services, Seton Hall University School of Law

Communication is the most important skill for a lawyer---being able to communicate clearly, concisely, and understanding a client is a great skill to develop and have. Being able to think quickly on your feet and creatively to fashion an argument is important. And, of course, having good judgment is important! So too, lawyers work hard, so having determination is important too---and understanding people--both clients, adversaries, judges, juries. Good people skills are the mark of any great lawyer---and so is a good sense of humor! Lawyers are people, and clients are people. Likable lawyers do best out there----do you want to work around someone grumpy or a team player? Do you want a lawyer who is annoyed to take your call or who welcomes your questions? Being “likable” goes a long way in terms of success in the workplace.

What hard/technical skills are most important for criminal defense lawyers?

June Forrest

Assistant Dean of Career Services, Seton Hall University School of Law

Lawyers need to be able to read, research, write. Those are both hard and soft skills. Being familiar with new technology used in discovery and in the courtroom is important too---law schools are devoting whole classes to that kind of technology now.

What criminal defense lawyer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Brian Mink

Adjunct Professor, University of Georgia

Graduates entering the legal profession will need to be highly adaptable and willing to learn new skills in addition to their legal expertise.

Do you want to know more?

List of criminal defense lawyer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a criminal defense lawyer resume and required skills for a criminal defense lawyer to have include:

Trial Preparation
Litigation
Law Firm
Criminal Cases
Legal Research
Federal Courts

Subpoenas
Legal Briefs
Jury Trials
Client Interviews
Demand Letters
Family Law

Proofread
Court Dates
Legal Issues
Real Estate
Court Hearings
Civil Law

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

Browse legal jobs