Most legal externs list "litigation," "legal intern," and "legal issues" as skills on their resumes. We go into more details on the most important legal extern responsibilities here:
Arguably the most important personality trait for a legal extern to have happens to be analytical skills. An example from a resume said this about the skill, "lawyers help their clients resolve problems and issues" Additionally, other resumes have pointed out that legal externs can use analytical skills to "collected, analyzed, and organized non-legal research for use in litigation and policy presentations. " Another commonly found skill for being able to perform legal extern duties is the following: interpersonal skills. According to a legal extern resume, "lawyers must win the respect and confidence of their clients by building a trusting relationship so that clients feel comfortable enough to share personal information related to their case." Check out this example of how legal externs use interpersonal skills: "assist counsel and paralegals legal research attend court hearings and out of court legal proceedings file maintenance interpersonal communication skills with clients" Another skill that is quite popular among legal externs is problem-solving skills. This skill is very critical to fulfilling every day responsibilities as is shown in this example from a legal extern resume: "lawyers must separate their emotions and prejudice from their clients’ problems and objectively evaluate the relevant applicable information" This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "resolved numerous cases prior to litigation through persistent advocacy and negotiation. " A legal extern responsibilities sometimes require "research skills." The responsibilities that rely on this skills are shown by this resume excerpt: "lawyers need to be able to find those laws and regulations which apply to a specific matter, in order to provide the appropriate legal advice for their clients." This resume example shows how this skill is used by legal externs: "conducted legal research on international human rights jurisprudence and explored strategies on incorporating international standards and jurisprudence into domestic litigation" Another common skill for a legal extern to be able to utilize is "speaking skills." Lawyers must be able to clearly present and explain their case to arbitrators, mediators, opposing parties, judges, or juries, because they are speaking on behalf of their clients. A legal extern demonstrated the need for this skill by putting this on their resume: "presented oral arguments to litigation team regarding inverse condemnation and the cpuc's executive jurisdiction. " While "writing skills" is listed last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to legal extern responsibilities. The skill is described by this resume snippet, "lawyers need to be precise and specific when preparing documents, such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney." Here is an example of how this skill is used, "provided litigation support for prosecution of tax evasion trial in u.s. district court skills used legal analysis, writing, editing" See the full list of legal extern skills.
Before becoming a legal extern, 68.1% earned their bachelor's degree. When it comes down to graduating with a master's degree, 6.4% legal externs went for the extra education. If you're wanting to pursue this career, it may be impossible to be successful with a high school degree. In fact, most legal externs have a college degree. But about one out of every nine legal externs didn't attend college at all.
Those legal externs who do attend college, typically earn either law degrees or political science degrees. Less commonly earned degrees for legal externs include criminal justice degrees or business degrees.
Once you're ready to become a legal extern, you should explore the companies that typically hire legal externs. According to legal extern resumes that we searched through, legal externs are hired the most by Oracle, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (finra), and American Civil Liberties Union Foundation. Currently, Oracle has 49 legal extern job openings, while there are 16 at Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (finra) and 11 at American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
If you're interested in companies where legal externs make the most money, you'll want to apply for positions at Jones Day, eBay, and AbbVie. We found that at Jones Day, the average legal extern salary is $184,968. Whereas at eBay, legal externs earn roughly $143,061. And at AbbVie, they make an average salary of $142,767.
View more details on legal extern salaries across the United States.
If you earned a degree from the top 100 educational institutions in the United States, you might want to take a look at Law Office, Private Practice, and U.S. District Court. These three companies have hired a significant number of legal externs from these institutions.
In general, legal externs fulfill roles in the technology and non profits industries. While employment numbers are high in those industries, the legal extern annual salary is the highest in the professional industry with $69,693 as the average salary. Meanwhile, the finance and government industries pay $69,310 and $65,865 respectively. This means that legal externs who are employed in the professional industry make 56.2% more than legal externs who work in the non profits Industry.