Top 12 Law Clerk Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive field of law, having a standout resume is crucial for aspiring law clerks. Highlighting a set of specific, highly valued skills can significantly enhance your chances of landing your desired position by demonstrating your capability and readiness to excel in a legal environment.

Law Clerk Skills

1. LexisNexis
2. Westlaw
3. PACER
4. Bluebook
5. CaseMap
6. Time Matters
7. E-filing
8. Document Drafting
9. Legal Research
10. Trial Preparation
11. Docket Management
12. BriefBank

1. LexisNexis

LexisNexis is a digital platform providing comprehensive legal research, case law, statutes, regulations, legal news, and practice guidance for law clerks and legal professionals.

Why It's Important

LexisNexis matters because it centralizes authoritative sources. With primary law, secondary analysis, and citator tools like Shepard’s, you can check validity, trace precedent, and build clean, defensible research quickly.

How to Improve LexisNexis Skills

Level up by working the platform with intent, not habit:

1. Train up regularly. Take vendor tutorials, then recreate tasks from your matters to cement the mechanics.

2. Use advanced search. Boolean, proximity, segments, filters. Narrow first, then widen if you must.

3. Shepardize early and often. Verify that a case still stands before you rely on it, then follow citing references to expand your net.

4. Lean on secondary sources. Treatises and practice guides speed context and point you to the right primary law faster than blind rummaging.

5. Save work. Set alerts on issues, jurisdictions, or parties. Build folders, annotate, and tag so you can reuse your own trail.

6. Explore practice area pages. Curated sources and tools reduce noise and keep you aligned with the right authorities.

How to Display LexisNexis Skills on Your Resume

2. Westlaw

Westlaw is an online legal research platform offering case law, statutes, regulations, secondary sources, and practical tools to support analysis and drafting.

Why It's Important

It brings deep coverage and strong citator tools (KeyCite) to confirm good law, plus the West Key Number System to surface related authority with less wandering.

How to Improve Westlaw Skills

1. Master Boolean and field searches. Precision saves time; proximity operators and filters do the heavy lifting.

2. Work KeyCite deliberately. Validate and then mine citing references, headnotes, and negative treatments for strategy.

3. Use the West Key Number System. Jump between jurisdictions on the same legal issue without reinventing the wheel.

4. Trim results with filters. Jurisdiction, date, court level, document type—cut the clutter ruthlessly.

5. Start with secondary sources. Practical guidance, treatises, and law reviews give framework and citations that matter.

6. Keep learning. New features roll out; periodic training keeps your workflow sharp.

How to Display Westlaw Skills on Your Resume

3. PACER

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) provides electronic access to federal court dockets and filings, essential for tracking cases and retrieving documents.

Why It's Important

PACER puts live federal case activity at your fingertips—dockets, filings, entries—so you can monitor deadlines, confirm status, and grab the paper trail fast.

How to Improve PACER Skills

1. Know where to search. Use both PACER Case Locator and individual court sites; some filings appear faster at the court level.

2. Search smart. Try party names, docket numbers, ranges, and nature-of-suit codes. When in doubt, broaden the jurisdiction, then narrow.

3. Work the docket sheet. Sort, filter by entry type, and jump via hyperlinks to pull only what you need.

4. Track updates. Check recent activity before spending on older PDFs; refresh dockets strategically to control costs.

5. Name and file carefully. Use consistent file naming and a clear folder structure so your team can find documents in seconds.

6. Mind costs and free options. Use your free looks wisely and download bundles rather than one-by-one when practical.

How to Display PACER Skills on Your Resume

4. Bluebook

The Bluebook is the dominant citation manual for legal documents, laying out how to cite cases, statutes, regulations, and a host of other authorities.

Why It's Important

Uniform citation signals credibility. Precise cites let courts and colleagues verify sources instantly, and they keep your writing clean and professional.

How to Improve Bluebook Skills

1. Practice with real documents. Draft, cite, then audit your work against the rules and tables. Repeat until it’s muscle memory.

2. Focus on core pain points: short forms, signals, pin cites, and id./supra. These are the traps that trip people up.

3. Bookmark frequently used rules and tables. Keep a quick index for your jurisdictions and source types.

4. Use a checklist. Before finalizing, sweep for abbreviations, spacing, capitalization, and punctuation quirks.

5. Keep current. Work from the latest edition and note any jurisdiction-specific style deviations your court prefers.

How to Display Bluebook Skills on Your Resume

5. CaseMap

CaseMap is litigation analysis software used to organize facts, issues, people, documents, and research so a case’s story hangs together.

Why It's Important

It turns chaos into structure. Facts link to sources, issues, and witnesses, making inconsistencies and gaps obvious before they become problems.

How to Improve CaseMap Skills

1. Build a clean fact list. One fact per entry, with dates, sources, and issues tagged. Sparse but complete.

2. Link relentlessly. Tie facts to documents, witnesses, and legal issues to reveal patterns and conflicts.

3. Use views and filters. Slice by issue, chronology, or custodian to prep for depos, motions, and trial outlines.

4. Annotate as you go. Short notes beat long memos when time gets tight later.

5. Generate reports early. Share draft chronologies and issue charts for team feedback before you’re too far in.

6. Maintain hygiene. Regularly merge duplicates, standardize names, and archive stale items.

How to Display CaseMap Skills on Your Resume

6. Time Matters

Time Matters is practice management software for organizing case information, documents, deadlines, timekeeping, and communications.

Why It's Important

It helps you corral deadlines, track work, and keep documents and contacts aligned with matters—less scrambling, fewer misses.

How to Improve Time Matters Skills

1. Customize layouts and lists. Put the fields you use daily up front; hide the rest.

2. Use keyboard shortcuts and templates. Faster navigation, faster documents, fewer typos.

3. Automate routine documents. Pull data from matter records to populate forms in one sweep.

4. Dial in calendars and reminders. Layer court rules, internal deadlines, and ticklers so nothing slips.

5. Clean your data. Standard names, consistent file paths, regular audits—speed and accuracy both improve.

6. Report on activity. Simple dashboards surface bottlenecks and overdue tasks before they snowball.

How to Display Time Matters Skills on Your Resume

7. E-filing

E-filing is the electronic submission of court documents through approved portals, replacing physical drop-offs with secure digital transmission.

Why It's Important

It speeds filing, confirms receipt, and keeps records cleanly timestamped. Less paper, fewer trips, quicker service.

How to Improve E-filing Skills

1. Know the local rules cold. Format, size limits, service requirements, courtesy copies, and timing—rules vary by court.

2. Prep PDFs correctly. Use text-searchable PDFs, apply OCR, follow PDF/A when required, and scrub metadata and unneeded bookmarks.

3. Name files consistently. Court-mandated naming conventions first; internal standards next for sanity.

4. Bundle exhibits intelligently. Clear labels, consistent ordering, and an index when permitted.

5. Test before deadlines. Portal logins, payment methods, signature blocks, and redactions—verify early, avoid midnight panic.

6. Track acceptance. Watch for notices of rejection, fix fast, and document the timeline.

How to Display E-filing Skills on Your Resume

8. Document Drafting

Document drafting for a law clerk means preparing pleadings, motions, discovery, contracts, and other legal papers with accuracy and purpose.

Why It's Important

Good drafting reduces confusion, avoids disputes, and anchors arguments. Crisp text saves judges time and clients grief.

How to Improve Document Drafting Skills

1. Define the goal. What order do you want? What risk are you allocating? Aim before writing.

2. Outline, then fill. Headings, logical flow, short paragraphs. Readers breathe easier.

3. Use plain language. Precision first; jargon only when it adds meaning.

4. Cite cleanly and support assertions. Pinpoint cites, accurate quotes, and fair characterizations.

5. Edit in passes. First for structure, then for clarity, then for cites and mechanics. Read aloud to catch clunkers.

6. Gather feedback. Attorney preferences and court style quirks matter—adjust and build your template library.

How to Display Document Drafting Skills on Your Resume

9. Legal Research

Legal research is the work of finding, validating, and applying authorities—statutes, cases, regulations, and persuasive sources—to answer a legal question.

Why It's Important

It powers strategy and drafting. Without solid research, arguments wobble, deadlines slip, and outcomes suffer.

How to Improve Legal Research Skills

1. Frame the issue tightly. Elements, burdens, jurisdiction, and posture set your search path.

2. Start with secondary sources. They map the terrain and point to the right primary law.

3. Search with intention. Boolean, fields, filters, and headnotes—precision over brute force.

4. Validate authority. Use citators to confirm good law and mine citing references for strategy.

5. Track what you tried. Save searches, note dead ends, and keep a short memo of findings and gaps.

6. Monitor for updates. Set alerts on key issues, parties, and statutes that move.

How to Display Legal Research Skills on Your Resume

10. Trial Preparation

Trial preparation involves organizing evidence, drafting motions and witness outlines, coordinating logistics, and shaping a coherent theory for court.

Why It's Important

Prepared teams move faster and make fewer mistakes. Judges notice. Juries feel the difference.

How to Improve Trial Preparation Skills

1. Build a living chronology. Dates, facts, sources—tight and continuously updated.

2. Create issue and witness matrices. What each witness proves, which exhibits they authenticate, and the legal elements that tie it together.

3. Draft the key filings early. Motions in limine, jury instructions, exhibit lists—write, revise, rehearse.

4. Prep witnesses with purpose. Focus on themes, exhibits, and likely cross; avoid overcoaching.

5. Assemble trial notebooks or digital binders. Tabs for pleadings, orders, key cases, exhibits, witness outlines, and objections.

6. Rehearse technology. Test displays, adapters, videos, and backups before you wheel into court.

7. Know the court’s preferences. Standing orders, filing cutoffs, and in-court procedures can be case-altering.

How to Display Trial Preparation Skills on Your Resume

11. Docket Management

Docket management means tracking cases, deadlines, filings, and court dates so work lands on time and nothing critical goes missing.

Why It's Important

It’s the heartbeat of a matter. Strong systems prevent blown deadlines and frantic last-minute scrambles.

How to Improve Docket Management Skills

1. Adopt reliable software. Case tracking, deadline rules, and document links in one place beats scattered spreadsheets.

2. Run a shared calendar. Layer court deadlines, internal milestones, and reminders for follow-ups.

3. Hold weekly reviews. Update status, confirm filings, and clear bottlenecks before they harden.

4. Communicate quickly. Brief, consistent updates to attorneys and teammates keep everyone aligned.

5. Go paper-light, organized-heavy. Use standardized folder structures and naming. Version control matters.

6. Document procedures. A short SOP for opening, updating, and closing matters reduces variance and errors.

How to Display Docket Management Skills on Your Resume

12. BriefBank

BriefBank refers to a repository of sample briefs, motions, and memos your team can search and adapt, speeding drafting and promoting consistency.

Why It's Important

A strong brief bank shrinks drafting time and spreads institutional knowledge. Good models mean better first drafts and fewer rewrites.

How to Improve BriefBank Skills

1. Tag and index meticulously. Issue, jurisdiction, judge, and posture tags make retrieval instant.

2. Curate quality. Keep only vetted, recent, and successful filings; retire stale or superseded work.

3. Extract reusable sections. Statement of facts templates, jurisdiction-specific standards, and argument frameworks save hours.

4. Annotate models. Note why arguments worked, where they failed, and what you’d change next time.

5. Version with discipline. Date stamps, authors, and matter numbers keep lineage clear.

6. Close the loop. After each matter, add winning filings and update tags so the bank stays alive.

How to Display BriefBank Skills on Your Resume