Top 12 Trial Attorney Skills to Put on Your Resume

In crafting a standout resume for a trial attorney role, showcase a sharp mix of courtroom skill, case strategy, and people sense. Hard-nosed research meets clear speaking. Precision writing paired with nimble negotiation. Below, the top skills that help your resume punch through the noise and signal you’re ready to try cases and steer complex matters from intake to verdict.

Trial Attorney Skills

1. Litigation
2. Negotiation
3. Research (LexisNexis)
4. Analysis (Westlaw)
5. Advocacy
6. Drafting (DocuSign)
7. Presentation (PowerPoint)
8. Organization (Clio)
9. Strategy
10. Mediation
11. Communication (Zoom)
12. Cross-examination

1. Litigation

Litigation is the formal process of resolving disputes in court, where a trial attorney brings claims or defenses, marshals evidence, and advocates before a judge or jury.

Why It's Important

It’s the gateway to justice. Litigation enforces rights, tests evidence under rules, and secures binding outcomes when negotiation stalls or fails.

How to Improve Litigation Skills

1. Keep learning: Take frequent CLEs and workshops. Laws shift, tactics evolve, judges change approaches. Stay current.

2. Tight case prep: Master the record, build timelines, craft themes, rehearse directs and crosses. Anticipate defenses and evidentiary fights.

3. Refine communication: Translate complex issues for jurors and clients. Trim jargon. Aim for clean, vivid language.

4. Leverage tech: Use modern case management, e-discovery, and trial presentation tools to keep exhibits organized and visible.

5. Mentors and feedback: Watch great trial lawyers, seek critique after hearings, and iterate.

6. Sharper writing: Briefs win battles. Outline, argue logically, and prune ruthlessly.

7. Client alignment: Set expectations early, communicate often, and make decisions with the client’s goals front and center.

How to Display Litigation Skills on Your Resume

2. Negotiation

Negotiation is the deliberate, strategic conversation aimed at resolving disputes or narrowing issues before trial.

Why It's Important

Done well, it saves time, cost, and risk. It can deliver outcomes a court can’t order and keep clients out of the uncertainty of a verdict.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

1. Prepare ruthlessly: Know the facts, the law, the other side’s pressures, and your walk-away point.

2. Listen actively: Peel back positions to uncover interests. Then trade, don’t concede.

3. Manage emotions: Keep the temperature down. Read the room. Regain control when talks wobble.

4. Ask sharp questions: Open doors with “what if” and “help me understand” rather than arguing every point.

5. Build rapport: Respect earns movement. Professionalism pays dividends.

6. Stay flexible: Shift tactics as new facts surface. Repackage offers creatively.

7. Close cleanly: Summarize terms, confirm contingencies, and paper it promptly.

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume

3. Research (LexisNexis)

LexisNexis offers deep libraries of cases, statutes, regulations, treatises, and news to power legal strategy and precise argument.

Why It's Important

Strong research underpins every motion, trial brief, and appellate issue. It helps you find controlling law, test theories, and avoid bad authority.

How to Improve Research (LexisNexis) Skills

1. Advanced search: Use Boolean operators, segments, and proximity connectors to sharpen results.

2. Filter ruthlessly: Narrow by jurisdiction, date, court level, or document type to cut noise.

3. Shepardize: Confirm good law, trace treatments, and mine citing references for arguments and splits.

4. Practice-area pages: Start with guides and secondary sources to frame the landscape fast.

5. Alerts: Track new cases, statutes, and topics without constant manual searches.

6. Research trail discipline: Save searches, tag sources, and build a portable memo of key hits.

7. Training: Periodically refresh on new features and smarter queries.

How to Display Research (LexisNexis) Skills on Your Resume

4. Analysis (Westlaw)

Analysis on Westlaw means interpreting primary and secondary sources to map precedent, extract rules, and translate them into persuasive positions.

Why It's Important

It reveals how courts think, which facts matter, and where arguments win or wither. Better analysis, better strategy.

How to Improve Analysis (Westlaw) Skills

1. Learn the tools: Master advanced search, Key Number systems, and editorial enhancements.

2. Validate authority: Use KeyCite to confirm status and find depth of treatment and splits of authority.

3. Mine secondary sources: Treatises and practice guides speed understanding and surface arguments you might miss.

4. Issue spotting reps: Read cases quickly, extract elements, and build checklists for recurring claims and defenses.

5. Stay current: Set practice alerts and skim updates so your analysis reflects the latest turns.

6. Compare jurisdictions: Contrast outcomes across courts to choose venues or shape arguments.

How to Display Analysis (Westlaw) Skills on Your Resume

5. Advocacy

Advocacy is the art and discipline of persuading judges and juries—through voice, structure, and evidence.

Why It's Important

It’s how facts come alive, how law breathes, and how your client’s story lands with decision-makers.

How to Improve Advocacy Skills

1. Practice speaking: Rehearse openings, crosses, and closings aloud. Record and refine.

2. Sharpen writing: Headlines that carry weight, paragraphs with one idea, conclusions that stick.

3. Mock it: Run moot courts and focus groups. Feedback beats guesswork.

4. Know your audience: Calibrate tone and pace for bench trials versus juries. Adapt on the fly.

5. Visual clarity: Use clean demonstratives and timelines. Let the exhibit do some of the lifting.

6. Mentorship: Shadow seasoned trial lawyers and borrow what works.

How to Display Advocacy Skills on Your Resume

6. Drafting (DocuSign)

Drafting with DocuSign means building and routing legal documents for secure e-signature, fast turnaround, and clean audit trails.

Why It's Important

It reduces friction. Fewer delays, fewer signature errors, better compliance, and a crisp record.

How to Improve Drafting (DocuSign) Skills

1. Templates: Standardize recurring forms and stipulations to cut drafting time and keep language consistent.

2. Custom fields: Capture matter-specific data automatically and eliminate manual gaps.

3. Conditional logic: Show or hide clauses based on responses to fit the scenario without creating new versions.

4. Team review: Use shared folders and comments to circulate drafts and lock approvals.

5. Security settings: Enable strong authentication and signer verification for sensitive documents.

6. Audit and retention: Maintain organized envelopes, receipts, and trails aligned with firm policy.

How to Display Drafting (DocuSign) Skills on Your Resume

7. Presentation (PowerPoint)

PowerPoint turns exhibits, timelines, and themes into a visual thread jurors can follow without getting lost.

Why It's Important

Clear visuals amplify memory and meaning. They simplify dense facts, highlight causation, and keep attention where you want it.

How to Improve Presentation (PowerPoint) Skills

1. Outline first: Decide the story beats before designing slides. One idea per slide.

2. Design for clarity: Big fonts, high contrast, minimal text. White space is your ally.

3. Show, don’t tell: Use charts, callouts, and clean images to support the testimony.

4. Tell a story: Anchor each section with a theme that ties evidence to your theory of the case.

5. Practice delivery: Rehearse pacing and transitions. Know when to pause, when to press.

6. Engage: Ask questions, check for understanding, and adjust in real time.

7. Use tech wisely: Seamlessly switch between slides, exhibits, and video clips without fumbling.

8. Trial-ready formatting: Pre-test in the courtroom setup to avoid display or audio surprises.

How to Display Presentation (PowerPoint) Skills on Your Resume

8. Organization (Clio)

Using Clio for organization means centralizing case files, deadlines, communications, billing, and tasks so nothing slips.

Why It's Important

It keeps your docket tight. Better visibility, cleaner records, faster collaboration, and fewer last-minute scrambles.

How to Improve Organization (Clio) Skills

1. Custom fields and templates: Capture the same critical data on every matter and automate standard documents.

2. Task lists and workflows: Map pretrial steps, assign owners, and use deadlines with reminders.

3. Calendar discipline: Sync court rules, color-code events, and confirm reminders across devices.

4. Document structure: Use consistent folders, tags, and naming conventions. Make retrieval instant.

5. Time and billing: Track contemporaneously, apply LEDES or client formats, and reconcile monthly.

6. Communication logs: Record calls, emails, and meetings in the matter so the whole team sees the thread.

7. Mobile usage: Update notes, time, and tasks on the go to keep the file live.

8. Integrations: Connect email, document automation, accounting, and research tools for smoother flow.

How to Display Organization (Clio) Skills on Your Resume

9. Strategy

Strategy is the blueprint—what to prove, how to prove it, and when to pivot.

Why It's Important

It shapes discovery, witness order, evidentiary choices, and the final ask. Strategy turns facts and law into a coherent, winning plan.

How to Improve Strategy Skills

1. Know the record cold: Element-by-element proof charts. Weakness maps. Alternative theories if the court trims claims.

2. Audience awareness: Bench vs. jury requires different emphasis, cadence, and visuals.

3. Story architecture: Build a theme early and thread it through pleadings, motions, and trial.

4. Scenario planning: Pre-write responses to expected rulings, surprise exhibits, or witness deviations.

5. Decision points: Define when to settle, when to try, and what must be won to justify either path.

6. Feedback loops: Post-mortems after hearings and mediations. Capture lessons and change the playbook.

7. Tech-enabled review: Use analytics and search to spot trends in rulings and craft motions accordingly.

8. Team alignment: Clear roles, tight communication, and consistent messaging across filings and appearances.

How to Display Strategy Skills on Your Resume

10. Mediation

Mediation is a confidential process with a neutral guiding parties toward a practical, mutually acceptable resolution.

Why It's Important

It can end disputes faster, cheaper, and with more tailored outcomes than a verdict. It also narrows issues even if a full deal doesn’t land.

How to Improve Mediation Skills

1. Clarify client goals: Priorities, constraints, and non-negotiables set your lane lines.

2. Prepare a candid brief: Focus on key facts, law, risks, and proposed paths to settlement.

3. Active listening: Hear concerns beneath positions. Reframe to show understanding and move talks forward.

4. Creativity: Offer non-monetary terms, structured payments, or phased obligations to bridge gaps.

5. Reality testing: Walk clients (and the other side) through likely outcomes and costs to reset expectations.

How to Display Mediation Skills on Your Resume

11. Communication (Zoom)

Communication on Zoom covers virtual hearings, client meetings, witness prep, and team huddles—clear, secure, and efficient.

Why It's Important

When distance or timing would otherwise delay progress, virtual tools keep cases moving and stakeholders aligned.

How to Improve Communication (Zoom) Skills

1. Polish the setup: Reliable mic, good lighting, neutral background. Reduce distractions and echo.

2. Connection first: Strong, stable internet or wired where possible. Test before high-stakes sessions.

3. Know the controls: Screen share, breakout rooms, mute discipline, and recording permissions.

4. On-camera presence: Look at the lens, vary tone, and pace with intent. Keep energy up.

5. Visuals that land: Simple slides and focused exhibits—no clutter, no tiny text.

6. Engage deliberately: Invite questions, use names, and pause to confirm understanding.

7. Dry runs: Rehearse key sessions with a colleague to catch glitches and refine timing.

How to Display Communication (Zoom) Skills on Your Resume

12. Cross-examination

Cross-examination is controlled questioning of the opposing witness to test memory, expose bias, and reveal contradictions.

Why It's Important

It can deflate a centerpiece witness, reframe disputed facts, and give the factfinder a reason to doubt the other side’s story.

How to Improve Cross-examination Skills

1. Plan the path: Define the points you must win and script short, leading questions to get there.

2. Keep control: One fact per question. No openings for speeches. Tighten when the witness evades.

3. Listen like a hawk: Pounce on inconsistencies, prior statements, and implausible details.

4. Use exhibits smartly: Impeach with precision. Foundation first, then the hit, then move on.

5. Know objections: Anticipate common roadblocks and pivot without losing rhythm.

6. Reps and feedback: Mock crosses with tough witnesses. Iterate until it flows.

How to Display Cross-examination Skills on Your Resume