Top 12 Litigation Attorney Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s jam-packed legal market, the right skills can vault your resume from the pile to the shortlist. What follows zeroes in on twelve core abilities litigation employers watch for, with quick ways to sharpen them and simple ideas for showing them off. Build breadth, show judgment, and let results do the bragging.

Litigation Attorney Skills

1. Negotiation
2. Research (LexisNexis)
3. Drafting (Westlaw)
4. Analysis (CaseMap)
5. Advocacy
6. Discovery (Relativity)
7. Depositions
8. Trial Preparation
9. Litigation Strategy
10. Client Counseling
11. E-Discovery (Concordance)
12. Mediation

1. Negotiation

Negotiation, in litigation, is the deliberate back-and-forth to resolve disputes on terms you can live with—ideally better—without rolling the dice at trial.

Why It's Important

It beats uncertainty. Smart negotiation trims cost and time, protects relationships when that matters, and keeps outcomes in your hands rather than in a verdict’s swing.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

Make gains by tightening fundamentals and reading the room with care:

1. Prepare ruthlessly: Know the record, the law, the numbers, the pressure points. Clarity breeds leverage.

2. Build rapport: Professional civility opens doors that bluster slams shut.

3. Listen like a hawk: Interests hide behind positions. Catch the tells.

4. Be crisp: Proposals should be unambiguous. Anchor wisely, bracket intentionally.

5. Map concessions: Pre-plan gives, gets, and red lines. No improvising your bottom line.

6. Keep your cool: Emotional control disarms brinkmanship.

7. Seek reps and feedback: Post-mortems reveal blind spots you’ll never spot in the moment.

For further reading and detailed strategies:

• American Bar Association - 10 Tips for Better Negotiation
• Harvard Law School - Negotiation Strategies for Lawyers

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume

2. Research (LexisNexis)

Research on LexisNexis (now commonly Lexis+) means mining cases, statutes, regulations, treatises, and news to construct arguments that actually hold up. Citators like Shepard’s keep you off bad law. Use it to pressure-test positions before they’re on the record.

Why It's Important

Thorough research turns hunches into authority. It aligns your strategy with current law, surfaces controlling precedent, and uncovers arguments others miss.

How to Improve Research (LexisNexis) Skills

Sharpen accuracy and speed with a few deliberate habits:

1. Master search logic: Boolean, proximity, segments, and jurisdiction filters—precision in, precision out.

2. Use citators early: Shepardize at the outset and again before filing. Trace treatments and negative history.

3. Exploit practice-area pages: Curated sources narrow the noise and surface the usual suspects fast.

4. Set alerts: Track new cases, statutes, or cites so updates find you.

5. Leverage generative summaries wisely: Where available, use AI-assisted overviews to spot lines of argument—then verify everything against the primary sources.

6. Build reusable research folders: Templates save hours across similar matters.

7. Train periodically: New features roll out often; small tweaks compound.

How to Display Research (LexisNexis) Skills on Your Resume

3. Drafting (Westlaw)

Drafting with Westlaw tools means building pleadings, motions, and briefs with integrated checks—citations, authorities, and formatting—so your documents land clean and persuasive.

Why It's Important

Quality drafting wins credibility. Westlaw’s databases and drafting tools help you cite accurately, mirror local practice, and tighten analysis without reinventing wheels.

How to Improve Drafting (Westlaw) Skills

1. Use Drafting Assistant and Quick Check: Catch citation errors, missing pincites, and weak support before opposing counsel does.

2. Study model forms and exemplars: Borrow structure, not prose. Tailor to the case theory.

3. Create clause banks: Keep jurisdiction-specific standards, boilerplate, and remedies at your fingertips.

4. Annotate authorities: Save notes on holdings, standards, and quotable lines inside your research workspace.

5. Solicit redlines: Peer review exposes logical gaps and tone issues you’re too close to see.

How to Display Drafting (Westlaw) Skills on Your Resume

4. Analysis (CaseMap)

Analysis in CaseMap or CaseMap Cloud means corralling facts, issues, witnesses, and documents into a single fabric, then drawing threads between them until the narrative holds.

Why It's Important

Complex cases sprawl. Structured analysis spots contradictions, reveals leverage, and keeps your team aligned on what truly moves the needle.

How to Improve Analysis (CaseMap) Skills

1. Impose structure: Use spreadsheet views and custom fields to tag source, relevance, and credibility. Consistency now, clarity later.

2. Link relentlessly: Tie facts to exhibits, testimony, and issues. Patterns emerge when the graph fills in.

3. Stress-test themes: Run reports to evaluate strengths, gaps, and likely attacks. Iterate the case theory early.

4. Collaborate in real time: Shared access reduces siloed thinking and duplicate work.

5. Keep learning: Product updates add features; short refreshers pay dividends.

For deeper dives: LexisNexis training resources for CaseMap and the American Bar Association’s legal tech guides offer solid how-tos and workflows.

How to Display Analysis (CaseMap) Skills on Your Resume

5. Advocacy

Advocacy is the craft of persuading decision-makers—judges, juries, arbitrators—through sharp arguments, credible facts, and timing that lands.

Why It's Important

Strong advocacy frames the dispute on your terms. It protects rights, clarifies issues, and secures relief that sloppy presentation leaves on the table.

How to Improve Advocacy Skills

1. Study the record: Mastery breeds confidence and trims fluff.

2. Hone delivery: Voice, pace, and focus matter. Practice short, practice often.

3. Sharpen briefs: Clean sentences, live citations, thoughtful headings. Let the structure argue for you.

4. Seek mentorship: Small notes from seasoned trial lawyers can shift outcomes.

5. Run mock arguments: Cold panels expose weak joints. Adjust before it counts.

6. Keep learning: Journals and CLEs surface trends, traps, and tactics.

How to Display Advocacy Skills on Your Resume

6. Discovery (Relativity)

Discovery is the pretrial engine that collects, exchanges, and tests evidence. In Relativity or RelativityOne, it also means orchestrating large data sets with search, analytics, active learning, and quality controls.

Why It's Important

No surprises. Thorough discovery arms your strategy, exposes weaknesses early, and limits trial ambushes.

How to Improve Discovery (Relativity) Skills

1. Design the protocol: Custodians, date ranges, file types, search terms, and sampling plans—decide before you dive.

2. Master search and analytics: Concept clustering, email threading, near-duplicate detection, active learning—use them to cut review volume without losing signal.

3. Build review workflows: Batching, coding layouts, escalation rules, and QC audits. Predictable process, defensible output.

4. Document decisions: Keep audit trails on inclusion/exclusion, privilege calls, and productions.

5. Upskill and certify: Short courses and certifications boost both speed and credibility.

How to Display Discovery (Relativity) Skills on Your Resume

7. Depositions

Depositions are sworn testimony outside court, captured for truth-testing, impeachment, and summary judgment. They set the stage; sometimes they are the stage.

Why It's Important

They reveal facts, credibility, and case posture. A good transcript can win or force a settlement; a bad one hangs around your neck.

How to Improve Depositions Skills

1. Over-prepare: Know exhibits, timelines, and theme. Write the examination map, then mark must-get admissions.

2. Set objectives: What do you need from this witness—facts, impeachment, expert angles, damages detail?

3. Lead with openers: Start broad to let stories spill; tighten as you lock elements.

4. Listen fiercely: Answers beget follow-ups. Don’t chase your outline at the expense of gold.

5. Control pace and scope: Stay courteous and firm. Break filibusters, clarify hedges.

6. Use tech: Real-time transcripts, exhibit management, and synchronized video streamline later briefing and trial.

7. Mind civility: Credibility with the court begins here.

How to Display Depositions Skills on Your Resume

8. Trial Preparation

Trial prep is the grind of turning a mountain of material into a coherent, teachable story—with proof that lands and a plan that flexes.

Why It's Important

When court starts, the die is mostly cast. Preparation decides what the judge or jury hears, how they hear it, and how confidently you pivot when something veers.

How to Improve Trial Preparation Skills

1. Assess early: Map strengths, weaknesses, and remedies. Set a theme that survives crosswinds.

2. Curate evidence: Build exhibit lists, demonstratives, and call-out pages. Trim anything that doesn’t serve the theme.

3. Drill witnesses: Directs that teach; crosses that contain. Mock sessions expose nerves and tics.

4. Know the rules: Evidence and procedure—objections ready, offers of proof prepared.

5. Shape with motions: Motions in limine and pretrial briefing narrow the battlefield.

6. Practice delivery: Openings, closings, and key examinations—short reps, videotaped, iterated.

7. Plan jury work: Voir dire goals, strikes strategy, and juror notes tracking.

How to Display Trial Preparation Skills on Your Resume

9. Litigation Strategy

Strategy is the blueprint—claims, defenses, timing, venues, motions, discovery targets, settlement posture—tuned to law and facts, not wishful thinking.

Why It's Important

It allocates resources where they matter, anticipates the other side, and nudges the case toward an outcome that matches the client’s real goals.

How to Improve Litigation Strategy Skills

1. Stay current: Track new precedent, rule changes, and local practice quirks.

2. Profile opponents: Study counsel’s patterns, forum tendencies, and prior rulings.

3. Leverage tech: Case management, analytics, and timelines keep the big picture visible.

4. Tell a story: Themes that fit the evidence are stickier than a list of facts.

5. Engineer discovery: Requests and depositions aligned to proof burdens, not curiosity.

6. Negotiate with intent: Use risk analysis and ranges; revisit as facts evolve.

7. Communicate with clients: Expectations, budgets, decision points—no surprises.

8. Invest in CLE and peer networks: Fresh ideas arrive from outside your matter list.

How to Display Litigation Strategy Skills on Your Resume

10. Client Counseling

Client counseling means translating law into choices. You listen, clarify goals, explain tradeoffs, and recommend a path when the forks show up.

Why It's Important

Trust is currency. Clear guidance keeps clients informed, aligned, and ready to decide when timing matters most.

How to Improve Client Counseling Skills

1. Listen first: Facts, pressures, risk tolerance—get the full picture before advising.

2. Use plain language: No jargon shields. Explain options, costs, and timelines simply.

3. Show empathy: Legal storms are personal. Respect that.

4. Offer concrete recommendations: Give a view, not just a menu.

5. Educate on process: What’s next, what could change, and why it matters.

6. Seek feedback: Tune your approach to the client’s style and needs.

How to Display Client Counseling Skills on Your Resume

11. E-Discovery (Concordance)

E-Discovery is the hunt, curation, and production of electronic data—email, chats, docs, databases—for litigation. Concordance, once a staple, is now a legacy platform; many teams have shifted to modern tools like RelativityOne, Everlaw, DISCO, or Reveal. The core skills transfer.

Why It's Important

Electronic evidence is the bulk of today’s record. Good workflows tame volume, defend process, and surface the documents that decide cases.

How to Improve E-Discovery (Concordance) Skills

1. Know the model: Identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, production—design each step, then document it.

2. Train on your platform: If you still use Concordance, learn its advanced search, tagging, and analytics. If migrating, map features to the new system.

3. Build defensible searches: Test terms, validate results with sampling, and record hit-rate metrics.

4. Standardize review: Coding manuals, privilege playbooks, QC checks, and second-level audits.

5. Collaborate tightly: Coordinate with IT, vendors, and co-counsel; reduce rework and chain-of-custody headaches.

6. Secure the data: Access controls, encryption, and clear data-retention policies.

7. Keep current: Case law on proportionality, privilege, and sanctions shifts—adjust protocols accordingly.

How to Display E-Discovery (Concordance) Skills on Your Resume

12. Mediation

Mediation is a confidential, voluntary process where a neutral helps parties craft their own solution—creative, quicker, and less bruising than a judgment.

Why It's Important

It saves time and money, preserves relationships when that matters, and lets parties shape terms no court could order.

How to Improve Mediation Skills

1. Listen for interests: Beneath positions lie solvable needs.

2. Manage emotions: Read the temperature. De-escalate before proposals flare out.

3. Refine bargaining tactics: Framing, bracketing, and timing of moves change outcomes.

4. Know the law and remedies: Creative options still need legal legs.

5. Stay patient: Movement can be glacial—until it isn’t. Keep momentum alive.

How to Display Mediation Skills on Your Resume