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Summer clerk skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Leslie Heaphy Ph.D.,

Andrea Schneider

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical summer clerk skills. We ranked the top skills for summer clerks based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 25.3% of summer clerk resumes contained phone calls as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a summer clerk needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 summer clerk skills for your resume and career

1. Phone Calls

Phone calls are a wireless or wired connection made over a telephone or a mobile phone between two people. Two parties are involved in a phone call, the caller and the receiver. A caller dials the number of the one he wants to call, and the recipient hears a bell or a tune to which he picks up the call. The call establishes a connection between them through which they can communicate. The voice is converted into signals and is transmitted through wired or wireless technology.

Here's how summer clerks use phone calls:

Communicated orally by answering telephone calls and referring callers/visitors to appropriate personnel based on specific name or functional area requested.
Answer the telephone, screen and redirect telephone calls, schedule appointments, file paperwork and provide receipts to tenants upon payment

2. Legal Research

Here's how summer clerks use legal research:

Conducted legal research on family law topics including cohabitation, custody, equitable distribution, and domestic violence.
Conducted legal research and performed administrative functions

3. Telephone Calls

Telephone calls are a communication means through which a caller is connected to the called party. The call is done through a telecommunications device called a telephone. The caller can use a landline, mobile phone, or satellite phone to make the call.

Here's how summer clerks use telephone calls:

Receive and directing telephone calls and relaying messages to others while maintaining accuracy, clarity and confidentiality.
Typed numerical data on legal forms, filed alphabetically and numerically, stamped invoices and answered telephone calls.

4. Legal Issues

Here's how summer clerks use legal issues:

Researched complex legal issues to assist in bringing timely resolutions to matters before the court.
Researched legal issues in construction law, securities fraud, bankruptcy, and ERISA.

5. Legal Memoranda

Here's how summer clerks use legal memoranda:

Prepared legal memoranda; gathered, prepared, and organized trial exhibits; and attended defendant/victim interviews.
Researched and drafted legal memoranda regarding intellectual property, real estate, and employment litigation matters.

6. Real Estate Law

Here's how summer clerks use real estate law:

Researched and wrote memoranda addressing topics in general litigation, real estate law and employment law.
Offer received) Researched and wrote memoranda addressing topics in litigation, corporate, and real estate law.

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7. PowerPoint

Here's how summer clerks use powerpoint:

Developed PowerPoint presentations to present consumer education information.
Demonstrated well-honed office management skills utilizing Microsoft Office Suites; Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

8. Interrogatories

Here's how summer clerks use interrogatories:

Prepared interrogatories and requests for admission.
Researched and drafted memoranda, prepared interrogatories, reviewed and summarized depositions, and investigated trucking accident scenes.

9. Summary Judgment

Here's how summer clerks use summary judgment:

Completed research assignments and drafted corresponding memos * Drafted contracts, discovery, affidavits, and a motion for summary judgment
Drafted complaints, a motion to compel and dealt with summary judgment and appellate procedural dispositions.

10. Bankruptcy Laws

Here's how summer clerks use bankruptcy laws:

Researched and wrote both memoranda and briefs on various topics including railroad and bankruptcy law.

11. Intellectual Property

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

Here's how summer clerks use intellectual property:

Supported a variety of intellectual property cases involving trademark and copyright disputes.
Presented overview of Chinese intellectual property laws to partners and associates.

12. 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 summer clerks use office machines:

Operated office machines, such as photocopiers, scanners, shredders and personal computers.
Balanced basic bookkeeping and filing duties Deliver and/or pick up packages Operate office machines Compile financial records

13. Oral Arguments

Here's how summer clerks use oral arguments:

Attended court sessions to hear oral arguments and record necessary case information, and maintained notes attendant to court proceedings.
Assisted in court with arraignments, sentencing hearings, status conferences, oral arguments, and trial

14. Court Proceedings

Here's how summer clerks use court proceedings:

Read motions filed in the Court, wrote briefs for Judge MacFarland, and observed Court proceedings
Coded case files and court proceedings for ease of retrieving essential support.

15. Scheduling Appointments

Scheduling appointments is the practice of finding a free slot with the person(s) you want to meet. The process of scheduling appointments involves finding mutually free time, negotiating follow-ups, sending reminders, and creating new appointments. Scheduling appointments is important to ensure that the timings of consecutive meetings do not clash with each other.

Here's how summer clerks use scheduling appointments:

Assumed leadership role by helping with scheduling appointments, registering/checking out patients, and ophthalmic dispensary.
Scan and handle administrative duties such as answering phones and scheduling appointments.-Maintaining excel spreadsheets, scanning the document.-Filing and scanning documentation

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What skills help Summer Clerks find jobs?

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What skills stand out on summer clerk resumes?

Leslie Heaphy Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Kent State University

-Online teaching experience
-Flexibility in teaching modalities
-Research and critical thinking continue to be important
-Digital technology
-Ability to ask good questions
-Writing skills
-Understanding facts

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

Andrea Schneider

Professor of Law, Marquette University

Law school graduates should focus on developing client interaction skills and dispute resolution skills, including active listening, understanding emotional intelligence, and non-defensive communication. The need for low-cost legal assistance, particularly in large urban areas, in foreclosure, eviction, unemployment, and bankruptcy will be significant. Volunteers with legal training will be needed to address unprecedented impacts on individuals in many areas of the law. They could also work on the software or technological skills that law school may not have provided but which will make them even more attractive to employers after the pandemic.

What type of skills will young summer clerks need?

Richard Meltz

Senior Advisor and Internship Manager Staff, The Ohio State University

For global affairs careers, many skill sets are sought. Language skills are valuable. All job seekers need basic computer skills. Word processing, spreadsheet and data analysis, excellent writing and communication skills are sought. Aside from these basic skills, the range of skills employers seek becomes more specialized. Computer mapping skills and the ability to analyze political, economic, social, and environmental issues with depth are sought. By numbers of jobs, the private sector is larger than the government sector. The understanding of how business and international trade works is useful.

What technical skills for a summer clerk stand out to employers?

Paula Smith

Assistant Dean for Career & Professional Development, Texas Tech University

Legal employers are seeking young lawyers with a good academic grasp of the law, excellent legal research and writing skills, advocacy abilities including negotiation, trial, and appellate exposure, and personal attributes of integrity, teamwork, diligence, resilience, and an expectation of success.

What soft skills should all summer 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 summer clerk skills to add to your resume

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

Phone Calls
Legal Research
Telephone Calls
Legal Issues
Legal Memoranda
Real Estate Law
PowerPoint
Interrogatories
Summary Judgment
Bankruptcy Laws

Intellectual Property
Office Machines
Oral Arguments
Court Proceedings
Scheduling Appointments
Employment Law
Administrative Tasks
Demand Letters
Arbitration
Client Interviews

Criminal Cases
Family Law
District Court
Criminal Law
Court Orders
Federal Courts
Property Law
Office Tasks
Trial Preparation
Civil Litigation

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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