lawyer personal statement for cv

Legal CV examples

A well-crafted legal CV will help you to catch the attention of employers in this very competitive sector.

But writing an eye-catching CV isn’t always easy.

So, whether you are an experienced solicitor or a junior paralegal , this article will guide you through the process of creating a legal CV that will get you noticed

It also includes 5 legal CV examples for inspiration.

CV templates 

Paralegal CV

Solicitor CV

Legal assistant CV

Trainee solicitor CV

The CV examples above show exactly how a Legal professional should present their skills and experience, in a well structured 2 page document.

This should give you a good idea of how to format your own CV, and the type of information you should be highlighting to recruiters and employees, in order to land interviews.

Legal CV structure & format

Recruiters are busy, and if they can’t find the information they’re looking for in a flash, it could be game over for your application.

You need to format and structure your CV in a way which allows the reader to pick out your key information with ease, even if they’re strapped for time.

It should be clear, easily legible, well-organised and scannable – check out some simple tips and tricks below:

Formatting Tips

• Length: Whether you’ve got one year or three decades of experience, your CV should never be more than two sides of A4. Recruiters are busy people who’re often juggling numerous roles and tasks, so they don’t have time to read lengthy applications. If you’re a recent graduate or don’t have much industry experience, one side of A4 is fine.
• Readability: Columns, lists, bullet points, bold text and subtle colour can all help to aid the readability of your CV. Your overarching goal should be to make the content as easy to read and navigate as possible, whilst also aiming to make your key skills and achievements stand out.
• Design: While it’s okay to add your own spin to your CV, avoid overdoing the design. If you go for something elaborate, you might end up frustrating recruiters who, above anything, value simplicity and clarity.
• Avoid photos: Don’t add photos, images or profile pictures to your CV. Not only do they take up much-needed CV space, but they’re actually completely unnecessary and won’t boost your CV at all.

Structuring your CV

When writing your CV , break up the content into the following key sections, to ensure it can be easily digested by busy recruiters and hiring managers:

• Contact details – Always list these at the very top of your CV – you don’t want them to be missed!
• Profile – An introductory paragraph, intended to grab recruiters attention and summarise your offering.
• Work experience / career history – Working from your current role and working backwards, list your relevant work experience.
• Education – Create a snappy summary of your education and qualifications.
• Interest and hobbies – An optional section to document any hobbies that demonstrate transferable skills.

Now I’ll guide you through exactly what you should include in each CV section.

CV Contact Details

Tuck your contact details into the corner of your CV, so that they don’t take up too much space.

Stick to the basic details, such as:

• Mobile number
• Email address – It should sound professional, such as your full name.
• Location -Just write your rough location, rather than your full address.
• LinkedIn profile or portfolio URL – If you include these, ensure they’re sleek, professional and up-to-date.

Legal CV Profile

Your CV profile (or personal statement , if you’re an entry-level applicant) provides a brief overview of your skills, abilities and suitability for a position.

It’s ideal for busy recruiters and hiring managers, who don’t want to waste time reading unsuitable applications.

Think of it as your personal sales pitch. You’ve got just a few lines to sell yourself and prove you’re a great match for the job – make it count!

Tips for creating an impactful CV profile:

• Keep it brief: Aim for a short, snappy paragraph of 3-5 lines. This is just enough room to showcase why you’d make the perfect hire, without going into excessive detail and overwhelming busy recruiters.
• Tailor it: The biggest CV mistake? A generic, mass-produced document which is sent out to tens of employers. If you want to land an interview, you need to tailor your CV profile (and your application as a whole) to the specific roles you’re applying for. So, before you start writing, remember to read over those job descriptions and make a list of the skills, knowledge and experience the employers are looking for.
• Don’t add an objective: Want to talk about your career goals and objectives? While the profile may seem like a good space to do so, they’re actually much better suited to your cover letter .
• Avoid cliches: Focus on fact, not fluff. Phrases like “Committed and enthusiastic thought-leader” and “Dynamic problem solver” might sound fancy, but they’ll do nothing for your application. Not only do they sound cheesy, but they have no substance – stick to real skills and facts

What to include in your Legal CV profile?

• Summary of experience: Demonstrate your suitability for your target jobs by giving a high level summary of your previous work experience, including the industries you have worked in, types of employer, and the type of roles you have previous experience of.
• Relevant skills: Highlight your skills which are most relevant to Legal jobs, to ensure that recruiters see your most in-demand skills as soon as they open your CV.
• Essential qualifications: If you have any qualifications which are highly relevant to Legal jobs, then highlight them in your profile so that employers do not miss them.

Quick tip: Your CV is your first impression on recruiters, so it’s vital to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes if you want to appear professional. Use our quick-and-easy CV Builder to add pre-written content that has been crafted by recruitment experts.

Core skills section

Underneath your profile, create a core skills section to make your most relevant skills jump off the page at readers.

It should be made up of 2-3 columns of bullet points of your relevant skills.

Before you do this, look over the job description and make a list of any specific skills, specialisms or knowledge required.

Then, make sure to use your findings in your list. This will paint you as the perfect match for the role.

Work experience/Career history

Now it’s time to get stuck into your work experience, which should make up the bulk of your CV.

Begin with your current (or most recent) job, and work your way backwards.

If you’ve got too much experience to fit onto two pages, prioritise space for your most recent and relevant roles.

Structuring your roles

Recruiters will be keen to gain a better idea of where you’ve worked and how you apply your skill-set in the workplace.

However, if they’re faced with huge, hard-to-read paragraphs, they may just gloss over it and move onto the next application.

To avoid this, use the simple 3-step role structure, as shown below:

Begin with a summary of your role, detailing what the purpose of your job was, who you reported to and what size of team you were part of (or led).

“Providing legal, trial and administrative support for team of 9 attorneys and 2 senior partners within a busy family law practice; reporting to the Lead Attorney.”

Key responsibilities

Next, write up a punchy list of your daily duties and responsibilities, using bullet points.

Wherever you can, point out how you put your hard skills and knowledge to use – especially skills which are applicable to your target role.

• Reviewing all legal documents to ensure they are correct and contain all necessary paperwork prior to submission to court
• Client management, maintaining key account relationships
• Managing a small team of  paralegals  and monitoring progression

Key achievements

Lastly, add impact by highlight 1-3 key achievements  that you made within the role.

Struggling to think of an achievement? If it had a positive impact on your company, it counts.

For example, you might increased company profits, improved processes, or something simpler, such as going above and beyond to solve a customer’s problem.

• Liaised with senior lawyers to implement new data procedures, reducing data process time by 50%.
• Assisted the Compliance and Legal Affairs team with the implementation of a new complaint handling system which reduced departmental spend by 15% annually.

Next up, you should list your education and qualifications.

This can include your formal qualifications (a degree, A-Levels and GCSEs), as well as sector-specific Legal qualifications and/or training.

While school leavers and recent grads should include a lot of detail here to make up for the lack of work experience, experienced candidates may benefit from a shorter education section, as your work experience section will be more important to recruiters.

Interests and hobbies

Although this is an optional section, it can be useful if your hobbies and interests will add further depth to your CV.

Interests which are related to the sector you are applying to, or which show transferable skills like leadership or teamwork, can worth listing.

On the other hand, generic hobbies like “going out with friends” won’t add any value to your application, so are best left off your CV.

Essential skills for your Legal CV

Tailoring your CV to the roles you are applying for is key to success, so make sure to read through the job descriptions and tailor your skills accordingly.

However, commonly desired Legal skills include:

Legal Knowledge – The law serves many purposes and understanding how law works in different scenarios will help you do every job in hand.

Responsibility – Meeting clients from different backgrounds is an everyday responsibility for a lawyer and many other jobs in law. You will need to be able to write clearly, listen to your clients’ needs and negotiate settlements which are important to your law firm.

Critical Thinking – Reviewing important sources and case studies is part of the job. You need strong analytical skills and excellent attention to detail to understand what every document is really saying.

Calculating costs – You may need to read technical documents in order to prepare estimates and Identify factors that impact on costs.

Commercial Awareness – All law firms are businesses and you will need to understand how businesses generally work so that you can offer insight into profit, timesheets and much more.

Writing your Legal CV

When putting together your Legal CV, there are a few key points to remember.

Always tailor your CV to the target role, even if it means creating several versions for different roles.

Additionally, remember that the structure and format of your CV needs just as much attention as the content.

Remember to triple-check for spelling and grammar errors before hitting send. If you’re unsure, try using our quick-and-easy CV Builder for a quick and easy approach.

Good luck with your job search!

Resume Worded   |  Career Strategy

• All CV Examples
• Legal Resumes/CVs

9 Lawyer CV Examples - Here's What Works In 2024

Looking to snag a job as a lawyer the key is a strong cv. in the fast-paced world of law, your cv has to stand out. it's not enough just to list your education and experience - you need to show your true value. this article will guide you with samples and templates to craft a cv that works for the legal field. let's get your career moving..

In the court of career progression, a Lawyer's CV is the key piece of evidence. Akin to a winning argument, it demonstrates a clear understanding of the law, the ability to research and analyse complex issues, besides presenting cogent reasoning. A recruiter's brief in sorting through multiple CVs is to discover these intrinsic qualities buried in the avalanche of facts. Typically, a Lawyer embarks on a career ladder with years spent learning the legal ropes. The seasoned practitioners among you have seen it all - from demanding clients to complicated cases. By 2024, as automation continues to influence the legal landscape, Lawyers who excel at interpreting the rule of law while navigating a digital world become the sought-after legal eagles. In the legal sector, you might toss around terms such as CV and resume, with some veering towards one or the other. Here's the legal verdict: In the UK, Europe, Australia or with employers from these jurisdictions, CV is the preferred term. However, rest assured, it is merely a linguistic difference, with no divergence in content or presentation. Yes, this dispels myths about CVs being lengthier. Unless you are under the academic or research hat, stick to the resume principle of a sleek 1-2 pages. The remainder of this piece will act as your legal guide, laying the foundation for your 2024 CV. We'll delve into winning templates, list pivotal skills to flaunt, and much more. So, prepare your career brief and get ready for trial by hiring!

Lawyer CV Templates

Jump to a template:

• Corporate Lawyer
• Immigration Lawyer
• Junior Lawyer
• Employment Lawyer
• Real Estate Lawyer

Jump to a resource:

• Keywords for Lawyer CVs
• Action Verbs to Use
• Related Legal CVs
• Similar Careers to a Lawyer
• Lawyer Resume Examples

Template 1 of 9: Lawyer CV Example

As a lawyer, your role extends beyond just representing clients in court. You're expected to understand and interpret laws and regulations, provide legal advice, and carry out intensive research to support your cases. Recently, the legal sector has seen a rise in the need for specialization, with recruiters focusing on applicants who clearly present expertise in specific legal practice areas such as environmental law, intellectual property, or corporate law. Remember, when writing your CV, it's not just about what you’ve done, but also the impact you've made. Tailor your CV to showcase your specialized knowledge and your track record of success in that area.

Tips to help you write your Lawyer CV in 2024

   detail your legal specializations.

In your professional experience section, don't just list your previous jobs. Specify the kind of legal cases you've handled and your specializations. If you have experience in environmental law, for example, detail the successful cases you've handled.

   Include relevant professional licenses and certifications

As a lawyer, your professional licenses and certifications are crucial. Add a section to your CV that specifically lists your bar admissions, certifications, and any other relevant professional qualifications. Include the dates obtained to show your career progression.

Skills you can include on your Lawyer CV

Template 2 of 9: corporate lawyer cv example.

Being a Corporate Lawyer is a distinct part of the legal profession, where you often act as a strategic advisor for companies. Your CV needs to mirror your capacity to handle complex matters that affect businesses within specific industries. Huge emphasis nowadays is being placed on understanding emerging legal issues in areas like technology and data privacy. So, your CV is not just an ordinary list of qualifications or experiences, it's a strategic tool that demonstrates your understanding of the constantly changing corporate legal landscape. While constructing your CV, remember that Corporate Lawyers are expected to have specific expertise and, more often than not, a specialization in a particular area. Showcasing your specialization, be it M&A, Intellectual Property, or Corporate Governance, can give you an edge. Companies are seeking lawyers who are not just well-versed with corporate law but can also communicate complex legal concepts to non-lawyers.

Tips to help you write your Corporate Lawyer CV in 2024

  emphasize on your area of specialization.

More than general corporate law knowledge, hiring managers value a lawyer with a specific area of expertise. In your professional experience section, you should detail key cases or projects that demonstrate your specialization, whether in M&A, cybersecurity, or real estate law.

   Show your tech-savviness

The legal profession, including corporate law, is becoming more tech-driven. You should showcase your proficiency in using legal research and document management software. Also, don't forget to mention your understanding of evolving tech-related legal issues, such as data privacy and intellectual property infringement in the digital space.

Skills you can include on your Corporate Lawyer CV

Template 3 of 9: corporate lawyer cv example.

If you're looking to step into the world of corporate law as a lawyer, your CV needs to clearly articulate your knowledge of complex legal matters and your ability to navigate the corporate landscape. Trends are ever-evolving especially with the rise in international trade disputes, increasing privacy regulations, and the growth of digital industries. In your CV, show that you're on top of these shifts. Remember, your CV isn't just a list of your accomplishments, it's a story about you as a professional, your journey, and where you're headed next.

   Present your legal acumen

Being a corporate lawyer means understanding and interpreting complex laws. Use your CV to demonstrate your legal prowess. Detail past roles where you've had to apply regulatory knowledge, manage risk or navigate corporate governance.

   Showcase your business mindset

Corporate lawyers are not only legal experts but also business strategists. Discuss instances where you've had to use your commercial acumen to make legal decisions. This could be anything from negotiating contracts to providing legal advice during strategic business moves.

Template 4 of 9: Immigration Lawyer CV Example

Being an Immigration Lawyer requires a unique combination of legal prowess, cultural sensitivity, and in-depth knowledge of immigration laws. The industry is evolving, with more people moving globally and an increasing demand for immigration experts. Clients range from individuals trying to reunite families to corporations bringing in foreign talent. Your CV should reflect these needs, showing your experience in handling diverse immigration cases, and your passion for helping people navigate complex legal systems. In addition, given the dynamic nature of immigration laws and policies, your CV should demonstrate that you're up-to-date with the latest changes. Also, consider that the competition for roles may be steep. You need to stand out and show potential employers that not only can you master the law, but you’re personable and can communicate complicated matters simply to clients.

Tips to help you write your Immigration Lawyer CV in 2024

   include noteworthy immigration cases.

As an Immigration Lawyer, you've likely handled a variety of cases. On your CV, include a few significant ones where your expertise made a difference. Don't just list them, explain your role, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. This gives potential employers insight into how you work and your areas of strength.

   Showcase Language skills

If you're multi-lingual, make sure to include this. Being able to communicate with clients in their native language can be a tremendous asset in an Immigration Lawyer role. This shows potential employers your ability to connect with diverse clienteles and navigate the nuances that language barriers might present.

Skills you can include on your Immigration Lawyer CV

Template 5 of 9: junior lawyer cv example.

Being a junior lawyer, you are the backbone of the legal team - conducting legal research, drafting documents, and supporting senior lawyers. Recently, law firms have been seeking candidates who are not only legally proficient, but also have a strong grasp of technological tools and can handle the pressures of the job. When crafting your CV, underscore your ability to manage complex cases, embrace legal-tech innovations and prove your resilience. It's not just important to show that you graduated from law school and passed the bar; demonstrating that you can navigate the contemporary legal landscape and thrive in high-stress environments is crucial. Pair your legal knowledge with your soft skills to stand out.

Tips to help you write your Junior Lawyer CV in 2024

   emphasize case management skills.

Lawyers often have to manage multiple cases simultaneously, which requires top-notch organizational skills. Show off your ability to manage multiple projects and meet stringent deadlines in your CV.

   Showcase legal-tech proficiency

The legal sector is increasingly relying on technology for research, case management, and data analysis. If you are familiar with legal research databases, eDiscovery tools, or other legal-tech software, be sure to mention this in your CV.

Skills you can include on your Junior Lawyer CV

Template 6 of 9: employment lawyer cv example.

As an Employment Lawyer, you're often navigating the complex waters of employment rules, regulations, and disputes. This is a job that requires immense knowledge of the law, outstanding attention to detail, and exceptional analytical skills. In today's rapidly changing work environment, companies are increasingly concerned with staying on the right side of the law and avoiding any potential employment disputes. While writing your CV, it's crucial to demonstrate a broad understanding of employment law, proven experience, and the capacity to handle pressure and complexity. The legal sector is traditionally conservative, but it's also slowly adapting to new technologies and modern ways of working. This includes how CVs are reviewed. Today, many law firms use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to shortlist candidates. Your CV should be ATS-friendly, using relevant keywords, and providing concrete examples of your accomplishments.

Tips to help you write your Employment Lawyer CV in 2024

   include specific legal expertise.

As an employment lawyer, you need to show your specific expertise in relevant legal areas. Mention instances where you've advised on complex matters, led successful litigation, or interpreted new legislation.

   Demonstrate ability to handle sensitive information

Trust is crucial in any lawyer role. Your CV should reference examples of when you've handled sensitive information with discretion and integrity, whether from previous employment or internships.

Skills you can include on your Employment Lawyer CV

Template 7 of 9: real estate lawyer cv example.

As a real estate lawyer, your CV is not just a chronology of your experience but a direct reflection of your expertise, competency, and uniqueness. Your CV should paint a clear picture of your ability to navigate the nuances of property law, transaction negotiations, and relations with various stakeholders. Recently, the real estate law field has seen a rise in technology-driven transactions, so showcasing your agility in adapting to digital environments is beneficial. When crafting your CV, remember that hiring managers need to see your specific achievements in real estate law and the skillset you've honed that can make you an asset to their team.

Tips to help you write your Real Estate Lawyer CV in 2024

   demonstrate proficiency in real estate law.

Take the opportunity to outline your expertise in key areas such as zoning laws, property management, and real estate transactions. This is your chance to show how you've handled complex legal issues and ensured compliance in past roles.

   Show adaptability to tech advancements

With an increasing demand for tech-savvy legal professionals, it's beneficial to outline your experience with digital tools and platforms used in real estate law. This could include digital filing systems, virtual transaction software, or case management systems that have aided your efficiency.

Skills you can include on your Real Estate Lawyer CV

Template 8 of 9: paralegal cv example.

As a paralegal, you're the backbone of any legal team. You've got to be incredibly detail-oriented, an exceptional researcher, and a master at managing a multitude of tasks simultaneously. The legal field is constantly evolving, and a good CV reflects that you're up to date with the latest legal statutes and case law. Moreover, with more law firms leaning towards digitalization, proficiency in legal technology has become a must. When preparing your CV, remember, law firms aren't just looking for someone with the right skills. They need someone dependable, someone they can trust to help keep the wheels of justice turning smoothly.

Tips to help you write your Paralegal CV in 2024

   show your experience in legal research.

Make sure to discuss specific legal research platforms you are proficient in, such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. Talk about how you've used these in past roles to contribute to case strategy, and if possible, quantify these contributions.

   Include legal tech expertise

It’s not just about legal research anymore; it’s about how effectively you can use legal technology. Showcase your proficiency with eDiscovery platforms, case management software, or even digital transcription services like Rev. This will show potential employers you can navigate the increasingly digital legal landscape.

Skills you can include on your Paralegal CV

Template 9 of 9: paralegal cv example.

When it comes to being a Paralegal, you're often the unsung hero in a law office, turning the cogs that keep the legal machine running. It's a job that may not get the glory, but is vital to the functioning of any law firm. Recently, the industry has seen an increased emphasis on technology competencies, given the digitalization of legal documentation and research. When writing your CV, it's crucial to portray a balance of your legal knowledge, excellent organization skills, and proficiency with tech, as these aspects are what firms are really seeking these days.

   Showcase relevant legal knowledge

As a paralegal, your grounding in law is vital. Make sure you clearly outline any legal courses or qualifications you have. If you have specialized knowledge in an area such as family law or property law, be sure to mention this. It shows you've got the core knowledge needed for the role.

   Highlight competence in legal software

Modern paralegal roles often require competence in legal databases and case management systems. Any experience with programs like LexisNexis or Westlaw is valuable. Include specifics - don't just say you're tech-savvy, detail the systems you've used and how they've helped you in past roles.

Skills For Lawyer Resumes

When crafting your lawyer CV, you are the star of your own courtroom drama. The hiring manager is the jury, and your CV is your opening statement. So, how do you convince them you’re suited for the role? By laying down powerful, real-world evidence, naturally. For example, instead of stating "Proficient in legal research," you could say "Applied legal research to successfully overturn a wrongful conviction." The ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) is like a stern judge. Only those who stick to the rules make it past this stage. Include keywords from the job ad in your CV. These might be skills like 'Corporate Law,' 'Negotiation,' or 'Litigation.' Incorporate them into your CV, either in your Skills section or weaved into your work experience, to pass the ATS stage. Remember to fully grasp the nuances of the job description. A well-tailored CV echoes what the employer values. In the legal world, your attention to detail can pay off dividends. Aim for a CV that’s as strong and compelling as your closing argument would be in court.

• Intellectual Property
• Legal Research
• Commercial Litigation
• Privacy Law
• Contract Negotiation
• Commercial Contracts
• Legal Writing
• Joint Ventures
• Corporate Governance
• Dispute Resolution
• Contract Law
• Civil Litigation
• Corporate Law
• Data Privacy
• Legal Advice
• Entertainment Law
• Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
• Due Diligence
• Document Drafting
• International Law

Skills Word Cloud For Lawyer CVs

This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Lawyer job descriptions and CVs. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.

How to use these skills?

Action verbs for lawyer resumes.

The heart of a lawyer's role is to argue, negotiate and solve problems. Your CV can speak these same skills, if you pick your action verbs well. Action verbs tell a short, strong story about how you work. Let's start with 'argued.' In court, lawyers argue cases. This is what they train for. On your CV, you might write: "Argued 50+ cases in state and federal court." This tells us, you are experienced and ready for court battles. Take 'negotiated' next. In law, it means talk-talk-talk until you find a deal. On your CV, try: "Negotiated 20+ settlement agreements out of court." That says, you can handle tough talks. You can end disputes without a big fight. Remember, the right action verbs can show what a good lawyer you truly are. Lean on them to make your CV tell your story in a brief, bold way.

• Interpreted
• Investigated
• Facilitated

For a full list of effective CV action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs .

Other Legal Resumes

Legal Assistant

• Attorney CV Guide

Lawyer CV Guide

• Legal Assistant CV Guide
• Policy Analyst CV Guide
• Compliance CV Guide
• Underwriter CV Guide
• Regulatory Affairs CV Guide
• Contract Specialist CV Guide
• Public Policy CV Guide
• Lawyer CV Example
• Corporate Lawyer CV Example
• Immigration Lawyer CV Example
• Junior Lawyer CV Example
• Employment Lawyer CV Example
• Real Estate Lawyer CV Example
• Paralegal CV Example
• Skills and Keywords to Add
• Related Legal Resumes
• All Resume Examples
• Explore Alternative and Similar Careers
• Lawyer Cover Letter
• Lawyer Interview Guide

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How to write a personal statement for your Legal CV

• CV & Career Advice

If written, structured and formatted correctly, your CV can be your ticket to interview. As a potential candidate for legal jobs, it is your most valuable asset.

Unfortunately, due to high numbers of qualified applicants, recruiters and hiring managers often spend very little time reading each CV they receive. To avoid having yours end up in the ‘no’ pile, the first half page of your CV must convince them that you are a promising applicant.

One of the most successful and efficient ways of getting – and keeping – the attention of a recruiter is by writing an impactful and persuasive personal statement tailored to the job at hand.

What is a personal statement?

Also known as a professional summary, the personal statement on your CV is a short, sharp paragraph no longer than 5 lines which encapsulates who you are, your work history, your significant achievements and why you are the right person for the role.

3 things to include in your personal statement

• A job title which reflects that of the job you have applied for

Label yourself with a relevant and universal title that reflects the title of the job you are applying for in order to show recruiters immediately that you have the background they are looking for.

If you have applied for a ‘Residential Property Solicitor’ role, present yourself as such rather than a ‘Property Solicitor’, ‘Real Estate Solicitor’ or simply a ‘Solicitor’. Equally, avoid any internal company jargon or abbreviations that recruiters may not know or understand.

• Your PQE level and relevant experiences

Clearly state how many years of experience or PQE you have gained so that recruiters can quickly determine whether you are likely to be a viable candidate. If the job you’ve applied for has any direct reports, highlight the management level responsibilities of your current role.

The job advert you applied to likely stipulated a set of experiences and expertise required to be considered for the job. If you do not show the recruiter that you tick these boxes, you are unlikely to pass on to the interview stage.

Use the job ad to your advantage, picking out some of the key role requirements and responding to them. For example, if the employer requests experience in commercial contracts, you might write “4 years of experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating a range of data protection and technology focused commercial contracts”.

• A demonstration of your value as an employee

In the personal statement on your law CV, you should give one or two examples from your career to date that demonstrate the value you will add if successful in your application.

As a Practice Lawyer, this might be the business development skills you used to onboard new clients or the fees you have generated for your current firm. Alternatively, an In-House Counsel may demonstrate value through their identification of commercial opportunities while a Litigator could discuss the results of a high-profile dispute they have successful settled.

Ensure that whatever you decide to include is relevant to what the employer is looking for and that you back up your claims with figures or evidence.

As with the rest of your CV, your personal statement should be concise, truthful and tailored specifically to each job you apply for. In essence, your personal statement should act as a response to the job advert and everything you include should relate to the responsibilities and requirements of the role at hand. By the time recruiters and hiring managers have read your personal statement, they should suspect you to be a viable candidate and be inclined to spend more time considering your CV.

If you have followed our personal statement optimisation tips and are ready to start applying, check out the latest jobs on TotallyLegal and upload your CV to get headhunted. Alternatively, if your CV still needs some work, browse the rest of our articles and advice .

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CV examples

Andrei has chosen the black and white Wisconsin template because of its minimalistic and one-column layout. It summarises his work history, qualifications, and key skills in a concise manner, making him the perfect candidate for his new career.

"Established Employment Lawyer with 5+ years of proven success in delivering expert legal advice and representation in law firms. Strong advocacy and public speaking skills complemented by proficiency in drafting compelling legal documents"

Table of contents

Persuasive Lawyer CV (Step-by-step Guide with Examples)

In the UK, becoming a lawyer boasts a staggering 2% success rate . These numbers may look intimidating, but don’t let them discourage you from pursuing your dream job. They play a pivotal role in providing legal advice, drafting documents, and representing clients in courtrooms across the UK.

As this lucrative field continues to demand sharp expertise and a deep understanding of UK law and the job market, staying ahead in your career journey is crucial. Embracing AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and navigating tech-driven changes bring new challenges and opportunities. Yet, the demand for skilled legal professionals remains ever-high, as they play a crucial role in resolving civil and criminal cases, ensuring that justice prevails within society.

Whether you are a recent law graduate , a paralegal , a trainee solicitor, or a seasoned Chief Legal Officer (CLO), this guide helps you navigate the complex legal job market. Discover our expert tips and CV templates for creating a compelling solicitor CV, propelling your legal career to new heights.

Looking to create a lawyer CV in few clicks?

The cv writing process: where to start.

Just as lawyers skilfully win cases in court, the CV process reflects the lifecycle of drafting legal documents, including initiation, planning, and execution. It is essential to market yourself efficiently to meet rigorous profession standards. For preparation before writing your lawyers CV, we suggest carefully examining the job description and researching the industry you are targeting.

Most common types of lawyers:

Conveyancer

Property lawyer

Chartered legal executive

Registered foreign lawyer.

Gaining insights into what hiring managers expect from your application could help you compile splendid career documents that closely align with their requirements. By strategically highlighting your strengths, you can present a compelling case for your legal expertise and present yourself as a top-notch candidate.

See the article on writing a good CV to learn more about master and job-specific CVs.

Lawyer CV example

Download this legal CV example UK as a PDF.

Andrei Popescu is an experienced mid-level lawyer with a specialisation in employment law. His skill set includes drafting compelling legal documents, conducting thorough research, and representing clients in diverse labour law cases. With a strong advocacy background, he is a suitable candidate for his next role. He has opted for the simple layout and two-column Wisconsin template that conveys his qualifications and expertise in an easy-to-read format.

What to include in a lawyer CV?

There are core and optional sections you need to take note of when preparing your law CV. The core sections could include personal details, personal profiles, work experience, education, and skills. The optional sections, on the other hand, are additional experience, references , and languages .

Areas of law in the UK:

Employment law

Corporate law

Clinical negligence law

Criminal law

Environmental law

Human rights law

International law.

There is no uniform way of writing a CV for an advocate and the way you write it depends on factors such as the type of job or industry and your professional background. The last but not least step is optimising your CV for applicant tracking systems (ATS) , as your recruiters or hiring managers can parse your CV for years of experience, technical skills, and the right qualifications.

How to write a personal profile on a lawyer CV

A personal profile on a CV , also known as a personal statement, is a brief snapshot of your key qualifications and career aspirations in four to six lines. It provides a quick overview of your personality and shows how you can contribute to the law sector you’re trying to enter. Highlight your notable achievements, areas of expertise, and years of experience. Instead of listing your skills in a separate section, use this personal statement to mention your main capabilities. Good soft skills for a personal profile include 'communication', 'negotiation', 'attention to detail' and 'organisation'.

Commercial CV Lawyer personal profile example

Detail-oriented commercial lawyer with 5 years of experience working in contract law and corporate transactions. Proficient in negotiating, drafting commercial agreements, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Trusted for providing practical and strategic legal advice to businesses. Committed to delivering favourable outcomes while mitigating legal risks.

Employment CV Lawyer personal profile example

Dedicated employment lawyer with extensive experience in labour and employment law. Adept at handling employment disputes, conducting workplace investigations, and advising on HR policies and compliance. Strong litigation skills with a successful record of representing clients in employment-related lawsuits. Committed to advocating for fair workplaces and protecting the rights of employers and employees.

Associate lawyer CV personal profile example

Attentive associate lawyer with a Bachelor of Law (LLD) degree and a successful track record in handling complex legal cases. Skilled in legal research, providing strategic advice, and drafting precise legal documents. Demonstrated ability to communicate complex legal concepts clearly to clients and stakeholders. Committed to upholding the highest ethical standards while advocating for clients rights and interests.

Corporate CV lawyer personal profile example

Accomplished corporate lawyer with 9 years of experience, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and securities law. Proven track record of advising corporate clients and facilitating business transactions. Skilled in drafting shareholder agreements and corporate policies. Dedicated to driving business growth and maximising shareholder value.

In-house lawyer CV personal profile example

Versatile in-house lawyer with expertise in contract negotiation, intellectual property, and regulatory compliance. Strong experience working as a key legal advisor within corporate legal departments. Skilled in collaborating with cross-functional teams and providing timely legal support. Proactive in identifying legal risks and protecting the interests of the organisation.

Litigation lawyer CV personal profile example

Litigation Lawyer CV Personal Profile Example Highly analytical litigation lawyer with a strong track record in civil and criminal litigation. Skilled in legal research, case analysis, and courtroom advocacy. Excellent communication skills with a history of negotiating settlements and representing clients effectively. Committed to achieving justice and fair outcomes for clients.

Senior lawyer CV personal profile example

Seasoned senior lawyer with expertise in corporate law, litigation, and regulatory compliance. Adept at leading legal teams, mentoring junior lawyers, and managing high-profile cases. Proven track record of providing strategic advice to senior executives and board members. Dedicated to upholding the highest ethical standards and advancing the legal profession.

Trainee lawyer CV personal profile example

Ambitious trainee lawyer with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) seeking valuable experience in a dynamic legal environment. Proficient in legal research, drafting documents, and supporting senior attorneys. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with a strong commitment to professional development. Eager to contribute to the success of a forward-thinking law firm and gain expertise across diverse legal areas.

What skills to put on a lawyer CV?

Incorporating the right legal skills on a CV is crucial not only to impress hiring managers but also to navigate ATS. Carefully opt for the most prominent skills that showcase valuable capabilities that could benefit the organisation or law firm. The key is to differentiate between soft and hard skills because. So, make it easy for employers to recognise your strengths and enhance your prospects for a successful legal career.

If you’re a trainee or transitioning to a different role, try to incorporate transferable skills such as ‘problem solving’, ‘project management’, or ‘critical thinking’ from previous experience. This could further help you land your job, especially if you’re seeking a career change .

Examples of hard skills:

Legal knowledge

Commercial awareness

Legal research

Data management

Knowledge of substantive law and legal procedure

MS Office Suite.

Examples of soft skills:

Public speaking

Conflict resolution

Example of technical skills:

Legal research : Westlaw, LexisNexis

Case management systems : Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther

E-discovery : Relativity, Nuix

Document automation : HotDocs, Contract Express

Legal billing : Bill4Time, TimeSolv

Legal analytics : Bloomberg Law, Ravel Law

Cybersecurity and data privacy compliance : GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA.

How to write work experience on a lawyer CV

Work experience on a CV is the foundation for any CV in the legal field, as that’s what most hiring managers ask you to have. Focus on showcasing tangible achievements rather than just listing duties. Emphasise your most recent and relevant legal roles that align with your targeted legal positions. Tailor your CV to a specific job by demonstrating your expertise, legal prowess, and the valuable contributions you've made as a lawyer.

Examples of achievements:

Drafted and negotiated contracts for high-profile corporate clients, resulting in a 20% increase in business agreements.

Developed and executed 30+ winning trial strategies, securing critical court decisions and favourable judgments for clients.

Trained and onboarded 5 paralegal teams to address legal issues in mergers and acquisitions, contributing to the successful completion of multimillion-pound deals.

See the achievements article for more guidance.

Examples of work experience:

Senior Lawyer, Smith & Associates Law Firm, New York | 2016-Present

Represent clients in complex litigation cases, handling trial preparation, legal research, and drafting legal documents. Collaborate with senior attorneys on legal strategy and case analysis. Advise corporate clients on compliance with regulatory requirements and conduct due diligence in M&A transactions.

Achieved favourable outcomes in 85% of cases, leading to increased client referrals and high client retention rates.

Negotiated settlements for clients, successfully resolving 90% of cases out of court, saving time and resources for both clients and the firm.

Received recognition for outstanding contributions to a landmark litigation case.

Corporate Legal Adviser, TechLink Inc., San Francisco | 2014 - 2020

Provided legal guidance and support to the company's management and cross-functional teams. Drafted and reviewed various commercial contracts, ensuring legal compliance and risk mitigation. Led the legal team in intellectual property matters, securing three successful patent registrations and enabling the company's expansion into international markets.

Designed and implemented internal legal training for employees on contract best practices.

Counselled with external counsel to manage litigation cases effectively, resulting in an impressive 80% success rate in favour of the company.

Received commendation for exceptional legal counsel in a high-stakes M&A negotiation.

If you have held several short-term jobs or internships, only pick the most relevant ones that could add value to your legal background. In turn, this helps streamline your legal CV and make it more impactful to potential employers.

How to list education on a lawyer CV

Education on a CV is a testament to your legal acumen, expertise, and qualifications. Showcase your relevant legal training and academic achievements to demonstrate your capabilities in handling complex legal matters and commitment to professional excellence. Legal work is intellectually challenging and competitive, so universities expect excellent A-level grades as evidence that you'll be able to cope with the demands of studying law.

Bachelor of Laws (LLB), University of London, London | 2020 - 2023

Graduated with First Class Honours.

Bachelor of Laws (LLB), University of Manchester, Manchester | 2017 - 2020

Obtained Upper Second Class Honours (2:1).

Recipient of the Law Scholarship for outstanding academic performance.

Legal Practice Course (LPC), City Law School, London | 2014 - 2017

Completed extensive advocacy training for courtroom practice.

If you’re a trainee or have no experience, you usually require a minimum of two A levels, with three A grades needed for the most popular courses. Entry requirements for an undergraduate law degree at top universities typically range from AAA to AAB.

How to list courses and certificates on a lawyer CV

As a solicitor, showcasing your professional development through relevant courses and certifications on a CV can bolster your qualifications and demonstrate your commitment to staying up-to-date with the latest law best practices. Renowned legal institutions like The University of Law, The City Law School, and The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) provide specialised certificates tailored to various legal specialisations. Incorporating these certifications into your CV not only enhances your credibility but also showcases your expertise in specific legal domains.

Examples of courses and certificates:

Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme (QLTS), Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), Bar Standards Board (BSB)

Chartered Legal Executive (CILEx), Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx)

Higher Rights of Audience (HRA), Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

Advanced Criminal Litigation and Advocacy Certificate, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

Notary Public, The Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury

Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

If you have participated in other activities or gained related experience, such as attending conferences, contributing to journals, volunteering, or working for NGOs, consider creating a separate section for ‘Additional experience’. List all your relevant side jobs and accomplishments here to showcase your interest and diverse skill set.

Key takeaways

After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of what hiring managers expect in your CV and how to format and structure your lawyer CV effectively. Technologies rapidly shape the legal landscape, so take advantage of that and demonstrate your proficiency in the latest tools and legal knowledge. See our key takeaways below:

Keep your CV concise , focusing on the most relevant information.

Write a compelling personal statement that showcases your passion and noteworthy achievements in the legal sector.

Differentiate between soft and hard skills by incorporating the former in the personal profile section.

Quantify your achievements with specific metrics and numbers whenever possible.

Highlight both duties and achievements , such as drafting documents or securing court decisions.

Showcase your relevant education alongside qualifications or certificates.

Proofread your CV thoroughly for spelling and grammar errors .

Next steps?

If you need to improve your legal writing skills, reach out to our CV Writing Services . We’re here to answer all your pressing questions. For further inspiration, explore 40+ CV examples to guide yourself in structuring and writing your CV concisely. Additionally, see how to start a cover letter and submit an application with no worries.

What should a lawyer CV look like?

It should include core sections such as personal details, work experience, education, and skills. Use clear section headings, a professional font (no less than 10 points), and maintain consistent fonts, sizes, and layout. Lastly, while listing your achievements or awards, utilise bullet points and appropriate spacing to enhance readability.

Are lawyers solicitors?

In the UK, the term "lawyer" is a broad term used to describe anyone who is a legal practitioner qualified to offer legal advice or representation in one or two branches of law. In England and Wales, solicitors and barristers fall under the category of lawyers. Solicitors handle personal legal matters such as divorces, wills, and employment claims, whereas barristers are involved in higher court cases. On the other hand, in the US, the legal profession is not divided into two, and individuals practising law are commonly referred to as 'Attorneys'.

How do I write a good CV for a legal internship?

A CV for a legal internship includes your personal details, relevant work experience, education, extracurricular activities or achievements related to the world of law. Emphasise your legal research and writing skills, attention to detail, and ability to work in a team. Highlight any relevant coursework, volunteer work, or participation in law-related organisations.

See our school leaver for more guidance.

What is the best format for a legal CV?

We recommend you use a reverse chronological format, starting with your most experience and working your way backwards. Most hiring managers expect candidates to have that, so it’s better to be on the safe side in this case. If you have little to no experience, have career gaps, or seeking a career change, consider creating a skills-based CV which lists your skills types and achievements instead of focusing on work history. Lastly, use a consistent font and professional template that aligns with the company’s culture.

How do I write a CV for a law student?

Start with including your personal details, education, relevant coursework, and any legal internships or apprenticeships you might have taken. Since you don’t have much experience as a student , we suggest using a skills-based approach and focusing on transferable skills from your studies. Highlight your academic achievements, legal research abilities, and participation in law-related activities or organisations. Show your passion for law and commitment to professional growth. Lastly, create a degree description to show how your education and expertise can contribute to your target industry.

Land the interview for your dream job with CVMaker

Effortlessly create your professional CV within 10 minutes and download it whenever and wherever you want!

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Finding vacancies

Writing a cv, writing a covering letter.

• Preparing for an interview
• Career advice

Your CV is often your first contact with a potential employer, so it should make a good impression and market your skills and experience in the best way possible.

Tips for writing a CV

• Keep it short – about two pages
• Explain any gaps, such as time spent on a career break
• Put the most important information first
• Tailor your CV to the role you’re applying for
• Make sure it highlights the key skills employers are looking for
• Give examples as evidence to back up your skills
• Make sure it is accurate – lies on your CV can lead to dismissal
• Proofread it carefully, and ask someone else to check it too

Formatting your CV

To make your CV easy to read, use:

• clear section headings
• a clear font that looks professional, no less than 10 point
• consistent fonts, sizes and layout
• bullet points

Layout and what to include

Contact details.

Use your name as the heading at the top of your CV.

List your contact details at the start of your CV. This should include your:

• email address
• postal address
• phone numbers

You can put these details on one line to save space.

You should not include other personal information such as your age, date of birth, marital status or a photo.

If you have a disability, you do not have to tell employers about it, but you might decide to tell them so that they can make reasonable adjustments for you at an interview, or in the role if you’re successful. You can do this when you apply or at a later stage. There may be a benefit to disclosing your disability where firms are committed to equal opportunity policies.

Personal statement

You may want to include a short personal statement at the start of your CV. This should briefly summarise your background, skills and experience and the type of role you’re looking for.

Work experience

List your roles, with the most recent first. For each role you should include:

• your job title
• the name of the organisation
• the dates you worked there
• your main responsibilities
• your achievements in the role

Make sure you highlight the skills and experience most relevant to the job you’re applying for.

You do not need to include your salary or the reason you left.

Education and qualifications

List your education and qualifications, with the most recent first. Include:

• the type of qualification
• your result, or expected result if you are still studying
• the name of the school, college, university or other organisation
• the dates you attended
• a brief summary of the course and what you learned, such as the areas of law you studied

You can also include any professional memberships in this section.

If you’re at the start of your career you may wish to put the education section before the work experience section.

You can include a skills section covering:

• IT skills, such as software packages that you’re familiar with
• languages, particularly if they’re relevant to the role
• any other specialist skills that are relevant

If you prefer, you can include your skills as part of the sections on work experience and education.

Interests and activities

You do not have to include your interests or hobbies on your CV. Think carefully about the impression they will give a potential employer. Only include interests that show you have skills the company is looking for, such as:

• volunteering, particularly if it relates to your career
• activities that show key skills such as team work
• positions of responsibility that you have held outside work
• interests that relate to the job

You do not need to list references on your CV. An offer of employment will usually be subject to receiving references, but you can wait until an employer asks for them, and this will normally be later in the process.

Check that your referees are willing before you provide their contact details.

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Oct 14, 2019

Written By Becky Kells

Law CV template

Tailoring your CV for a legal profession is the first step in landing your training contract, vacation scheme or pupillage. Take inspiration from this template to create the perfect CV, tailored to the job application description.

Personal information

- Email address

- Phone number

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A profile for a law CV is written in the third person and can be as long as three to four sentences. It details your personal qualities, skills and experiences most relevant to the job position and outlines the type of opportunity you are looking for. Make sure to keep your profile concise and engaging to encourage the recruiter to read on. The profile should be specifically tailored to the job in question.

Example: 

An ambitious, enthusiastic and committed second year LLB undergraduate who possesses a genuine interest and understanding of ___. Keen to obtain a summer placement within a ___ environment.

Currently seeking a challenging law work placement opportunity within a dynamic ___ firm, which will offer early responsibilities and the opportunity to develop practical legal skills.

Education/key qualifications

Make sure to list your qualifications in reverse order, starting with your most recent qualification. If you are in the middle of obtaining a qualification, this should still feature in this section.

Rather than using sentences to describe your previous experience, opt for a succinct format.

If you choose to include the modules you have studied during your degree, make sure to include the most relevant modules to the job opportunity you are applying to.

Bachelor of Law, Coventry University                          2018 - Present

Modules include European and International Law, Human Rights and Family Law

Legal work experience

This section should also be organised in reverse order. By distinguishing legal work experience from any other work experience you may have acquired makes it easy for recruiters to determine your commitment to the profession.

Provide the dates, the name of the employer or organisation, the location and your job title.

Include a brief job description in addition to the skills you developed and your contribution to the work environment. This will enable your prospective employer to quantify your previous experience.

Legal Assistant, Alsters Kelly Solicitors, Leicester                                 August 2019

- Translating legal documents into English from Chinese and Japanese.

- Supporting a team of three solicitors during immigration screening interviews by note taking and using my language skills to relay advice to clients on complex immigration issues.

- improving my practical understanding of International Law and immigration issues, and developing my listening and rapport-building skills.

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Further work experience

Use this section to include any work experience that is not explicitly related to law, but nonetheless describes skills that would be of benefit to your application for a legal opportunity.

Customer Service Representative, British Gas, Leicester                        June - September 2018

Responsibilities:

- Assisting customers by providing up to date and accurate information on products and services.

- Providing customer feedback to my line manager on a monthly and ad hoc basis.

Skills Acquired: The ability to work independently or as part of a team in an organised manner; an understanding of how large businesses work and how to communicate effectively with colleagues and customers; the ability to assimilate new information and adapt to a commercial environment.

Achievements: Designed and implemented a new workflow spreadsheet and reward system that was approved by the management committee and adopted by the branch. This improved productivity by 25% over a six-month period, significantly increasing staff motivation and commitment levels.

Personal achievements

This section should include details of relevant and exceptional achievements

Vice-President, Law Society, Coventry University                                                September 2018- June 2019

My involvement included helping to run the society alongside the president, as well as organising a host of career-related events.

“2018 Debater of the Year” accolade, Coventry University.

Other skills

This section is optional and could include details of language competencies, computer literacy or whether you have a full, clean UK/EU/EEA or international driving licence.

Interests & activities

Include details of activities to demonstrate law-related competencies and also those which show that you are a well-rounded individual who is capable, accomplished, responsible, active and enthusiastic about getting involved in other pursuits.

Volunteering: On a monthly basis I volunteer at one of three local schools in my area to provide “Aim Higher” input into their citizenship classes.

- I have presented seven one-hour sessions to groups of up to 50 young people aged between eight and 14 years old.

- The feedback I have received from students has been very positive, and the teachers involved with the scheme have begun to develop my input into other subject areas.

In this section, you can either:

- Give the full names and contact details of two referees (one academic, one work-related);

- Or, simply state “available on request.”

Make sure to inform your chosen referees of your decision to include their names on your CV.

If you're currently on the hunt for a Training Contract or Vacation Scheme, head over to our Law Jobs section .

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18 Law School Personal Statement Examples That Got Accepted!

This blog contains law school personal statement examples written by applicants who were successfully accepted to multiple law schools after working with our admissions experts as part of our  application review programs . Your  law school personal statement  is one of the most important parts of your application and is your best opportunity to show admissions officers who you are behind your numbers and third-party assessments. Because of its importance, many students find the personal statement to be daunting and demanding of the full scope of their skills as writers. Today we're going to review these excellent law school personal statement examples from past successful applicants and provide some proven strategies from a former admissions officer that can help you prepare your own stellar essay. 

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 44 min read

Law school personal statement example #1.

When I was a child, my neighbors, who had arrived in America from Nepal, often seemed stressed. They argued a lot, struggled for money, and seemed to work all hours of the day. One day, I woke early in the morning to a commotion outside my apartment. Police officers were accompanying my neighbors out of the building. They were being deported. In my teens, I was shocked to see that our kind, friendly neighbors had exhausted their last chance to stay in America as they lost a court appeal. 

Since that time, I have worked closely with the many immigrant families in my neighborhood, and now university town. I began by volunteering at a local community center. Together with social workers, I served food and gave out clothes to new arrivals. My diligent work ethic led to more responsibility, and I received training in basic counseling techniques, first aid skills and community services. Soon, I was tasked with welcoming new community members and assessing their health and social needs. I heard the many difficult stories of those who had traveled thousands of miles, often through several countries, risking everything to reach a safe, welcoming country. I was proud to contribute in some small way to making America welcoming for these individuals.

The community center is where I had my first formal contact with legal aid lawyers, who were a constant source of knowledge and support for those who needed assistance. I was struck by the lawyers’ ability to explain complex legal processes to nervous and exhausted incomers: law, I realized, was about more than procedure. I decided that I, too, would strive to balance a wealth of technical knowledge with my caring, compassionate personality.

As soon as I enrolled in university, I knew I had the chance to do so. In my very first week, I signed up to volunteer at the university’s legal aid center, where I worked closely with law professors and students on a range of cases. Academically, I have focused on courses, such as a fourth-year Ethics seminar, that would help me develop rigorous critical reasoning skills. More importantly, I knew that, given my experience, I could be a leader on campus. I decided to found a refugee campaign group, Students4Refugees. Together with a group of volunteers, we campaigned to make our campus a refugee-friendly space. I organized a series of events: international student mixers, an art installation in our student commons, and concerts that raised over $5,000 for the charity Refugee Aid. I am proud to say that my contributions were recognized with a university medal for campus leadership.

I have seen time and again how immigrants to the United States struggle with bureaucracy, with complex legal procedures, and with the demands of living in a foreign and sometimes hostile climate. As I plan to enter law school, I look back to my neighbors’ experiences: they needed someone who knew the law, who could negotiate with the authorities on their behalf, who could inform them of their rights—but they also needed someone who would provide a caring and compassionate outlet for their stresses. I know that Townsville University’s combination of academic rigor, legal aid services, and history of graduates entering labor and non-profit sectors will allow me to develop these skills and continue making contributions to my community by advocating for those in need.

• Thematic consistency: It focuses on just one theme: justice for immigrants. Each paragraph is designed to show off how enthusiastic the student is about this area of law. Personal statements—including those for law school—often begin with a personal anecdote. This one is short, memorable, and relevant. It establishes the overall theme quickly. By constraining their essay’s focus to a single general theme, the writer can go into great depth and weave in emotional and psychological weight through careful and vivid description. The personal statement isn’t a standard 3-paragraph college essay with a spotlight thesis statement, but it conveys similar impact through presenting a central focus organically, without resorting to simply blurting out “the point” of the piece.   
• Shows, rather than tells: Connected to this, this statement focuses on showing rather than telling. Rather than simply telling the reader about their commitment to law, the applicant describes specific situations they were involved in that demonstrate their commitment to law. “Show don’t tell” means you want to paint a vivid picture of actions or experiences that demonstrate a given quality or skill, and not simply say "I can do X." Make it an experience for your reader, don't just give them a fact. 
• Confident, but not arrogant: Additionally, this personal statement is confident without being boastful—leadership qualities, grades, and an award are all mentioned in context, rather than appearing as a simple list of successes. 
• Specific to the school: It ends with a conclusion that alludes to why the applicant is suitable for the specific school to which they’re applying and points to their future career plans. Thoroughly researching the law school to which you’re applying is incredibly important so that you can tailor your remarks to the specific qualities and values they’re looking for. A law essay writing service is really something that can help you integrate this aspect effectively. 

What Should a Law School Personal Statement Do?

1.      be unique to the school you’re applying to.

Students are always asking how to write a personal statement for law school, particularly one that stands out from all the rest. After all, advice from most universities can often be quite vague. Take this zinger from the  University of Chicago : “Write about something personal, relevant, and completely individual to you… Just be yourself.” Every school will have different requirements or content they want to see in a personal statement. This is why it’s a good idea to review specific guidelines for the school to which you’re applying. For example, you can read Yale Law School personal statement examples , Stanford Law personal statement examples , and an NYU personal statement to get an idea of what these schools look for.

2.      Demonstrate your skills and capabilities

For motivated students with the world at their fingertips, it’s a tough ask to narrow your character down into a few hundred words! But this is exactly the point of such generic guidelines—to challenge aspiring law students to produce something unique and convincing with minimal direction by the university. Law is, after all, a profession that demands your language to be persuasive, and the personal statement is merely one of many exercises where you can demonstrate your language skills. 

3.      Meet basic requirements

While the law school personal statement is about far more than just following essay directions, you still need to keep basic formatting and length restrictions in mind. Most law schools ask for a 2-page personal statement, but lengths can range from 2-4 pages. Georgetown Law School , for instance, recommends a 2-page personal statement but explicitly states that there is no official minimum or maximum. In general, length does not make a personal statement better. Rambling, meandering sentences and tiresome descriptions will only hurt the impact of your ideas, especially considering how many thousands of pages admissions committees have to churn through each year.  

In short, keep to 2 double-spaced pages, and only go below or above this is if you absolutely have to, and if the school to which you're applying allows it. You want to keep things as widely applicable as possible while drafting your personal statement, meaning that you don't want to draft a 4 page letter for the one school that allows it, and then have to significantly rewrite this for your other schools. Stick to 2 pages. 

4.      Embody what the school is looking for

Lastly, many law schools won’t offer hyper-specific prompts, but will give you general law school admissions essay topics to follow. For instance, the University of Washington’s law school provides a number of topics to follow, including “Describe a personal challenge you faced” or “Describe your passions and involvement in a project or pursuit and the ways in which it has contributed to your personal growth and goals.” These topics may feel specific at first, but as you begin drafting, you’ll likely realize you have dozens of memories to choose from, and numerous ways of describing their impact. While drafting, try to explore as many of these options as possible, and select the best or most impactful to use in your final draft.  

Want to write the perfect law school personal statement? Watch this video:

Law School Personal Statement Example #2

In my home community, the belief is that the law is against us. The law oppresses and victimizes. I must admit that as a child and young person I had this opinion based on my environment and the conversations around me. I did not understand that the law could be a vehicle for social change, and I certainly did not imagine I had the ability and talents to be a voice for this change. I regularly attended my high school classes because I enjoyed the discussions and reading for English and history, and writing came easily to me, but I wasn’t committed to getting good grades because I felt I had no purpose. My mindset changed as I spent time with Mark Russell, a law student who agreed to mentor and tutor me as part of a “high school to law school” mentorship program. Every week, for three years, Mark and I would meet. At first, Mark tutored me, but I quickly became an “A” student, not only because of the tutoring, but because my ambitions were uncorked by what Mark shared with me about university, the law, and his life. I learned grades were the currency I needed to succeed. I attended mock trials, court hearings, and law lectures with Mark and developed a fresh understanding of the law that piqued an interest in law school. My outlook has changed because my mentor, my teachers, and my self-advocacy facilitated my growth. Still, injustices do occur. The difference is that I now believe the law can be an instrument for social change, but voices like mine must give direction to policy and resources in order to fight those injustices.

Early in my mentorship, I realized it was necessary to be “in the world” differently if I were to truly consider a law career. With Mark’s help and the support of my high school teachers, I learned to advocate for myself and explore opportunities that would expand my worldview as well as my academic skills. I joined a Model UN club at a neighboring high school, because my own school did not have enough student interest to have a club. By discussing global issues and writing decisions, I began to feel powerful and confident with my ability to gather evidence and make meaningful decisions about real global issues. As I built my leadership, writing, and public speaking skills, I noticed a rift developing with some of my friends. I wanted them to begin to think about larger systemic issues outside of our immediate experience, as I was learning to, and to build confidence in new ways. I petitioned my school to start a Model UN and recruited enough students to populate the club. My friends did not join the club as I’d hoped, but before I graduated, we had 2 successful years with the students who did join. I began to understand that I cannot force change based on my own mandate, but I must listen attentively to the needs and desires of others in order to support them as they require.

While I learned to advocate for myself throughout high school, I also learned to advocate for others. My neighbors, knowing my desire to be a lawyer, would often ask me to advocate on their behalf with small grievances. I would make phone calls, stand in line with them at government offices, and deal with difficult landlords. A woman, Elsa, asked me to review her rental agreement to help her understand why her landlord had rented it to someone else, rather than renewing her lease. I scoured the rental agreement, highlighted questionable sections, read the Residential Tenancies Act, and developed a strategy for approaching the landlord. Elsa and I sat down with the landlord and, upon seeing my binder complete with indices, he quickly conceded before I could even speak. That day, I understood evidence is the way to justice. My interest in justice grew, and while in university, I sought experiences to solidify my decision to pursue law.

Last summer, I had the good fortune to work as a summer intern in the Crown Attorney’s Office responsible for criminal trial prosecutions. As the only pre-law intern, I was given tasks such as reviewing court tapes, verifying documents, and creating a binder with indices. I often went to court with the prosecutors where I learned a great deal about legal proceedings, and was at times horrified by human behavior. This made the atmosphere in the Crown Attorney’s office even more surprising. I worked with happy and passionate lawyers whose motivations were pubic service, the safety and well-being of communities, and justice. The moment I realized justice was their true objective, not the number of convictions, was the moment I decided to become a lawyer.

I broke from the belief systems I was born into. I did this through education, mentorship, and self-advocacy. There is sadness because in this transition I left people behind, especially as I entered university. However, I am devoted to my home community. I understand the barriers that stand between youth and their success. As a law student, I will mentor as I was mentored, and as a lawyer, I will be a voice for change.

What’s Great about this Second Law School Personal Statement?

• It tells a complete and compelling story: Although the applicant expressed initial reservations about the law generally, the statement tells a compelling story of how the applicant's opinions began to shift and their interest in law began. They use real examples and show how that initial interest, once seeded, grew into dedication and passion. This introduction implies an answer to the " why do you want to study law? ” interview question.
• It shows adaptability: Receptiveness to new information and the ability to change both thought and behavior based on this new information. The writer describes realizing that they needed to be "in the world" differently! It's hard to convey such a grandiose idea without sounding cliché, but through their captivating and chronological narrative, the writer successfully convinces the reader that this is the case with copious examples, including law school extracurriculars . It’s a fantastic case of showing rather than telling, describing specific causes they were involved with which demonstrate that the applicant is genuinely committed to a career in the law. 
• Includes challenges the subject faced and overcame: This law school personal statement also discusses weighty, relatable challenges that they faced, such as the applicant's original feeling toward law, and the fact that they lost some friends along the way. However, the applicant shows determination to move past these hurdles without self-pity or other forms of navel-gazing.  Additionally, this personal statement ends with a conclusion that alludes to why the applicant is suitable for the specific school to which they’re applying and points to their future career plans. The writer manages to craft an extremely immersive and believable story about their path to the present, while also managing to curate the details of this narrative to fit the specific values and mission of the school to which they’re applying.

What’s Great About This Third Law School Personal Statement? 

• Description is concise and effective: This writer opens with rich, vivid description and seamlessly guides the reader into a compelling first-person narrative. Using punchy, attention-grabbing descriptions like these make events immersive, placing readers in the writer's shoes and creating a sense of immediacy. 
• Achievements are the focus: They also do a fantastic job of talking about their achievements, such as interview team lead, program design, etc., without simply bragging. Instead, they deliver this information within a cohesive narrative that includes details, anecdotes, and information that shows their perspective in a natural way. Lastly, they invoke their passion for law with humility, discussing their momentary setbacks and frustrations as ultimately positive experiences leading to further growth. 

Want more law school personal statement examples from top law schools?

• Harvard law school personal statement examples
• Columbia law school personal statement examples
• Cornell law school personal statement examples
• Yale law school personal statement examples
• UPenn law school personal statement examples
• Cambridge law school personal statement examples

Law School Personal Statement #4

What’s great about this fourth law school personal statement.

• Engaging description: Like the third example above, this fourth law school personal statement opens with engaging description and first-person narrative. However, the writer of this personal statement chooses to engage a traumatic aspect of their childhood and discuss how this adversity led them to develop their desire to pursue a career in law.  
• Strong theme of overcoming adversity: Overcoming adversity is a frequent theme in personal statements for all specialties, but with law school personal statements students are often able to utilize uniquely dramatic, difficult, and pivotal experiences that involved interacting with the law. It may be hard to discuss such emotionally weighty experiences in a short letter but, as this personal statement shows, with care and focus it's possible to sincerely demonstrate how your early struggles paved the way for you to become the person you are now. It's important to avoid sensationalism, but you shouldn't shy away from opening up to your readers about adverse experiences that have ultimately pointed you in a positive direction. 

Why "show, don't tell" is the #1 rule for personal statements:

Law School Personal Statement Example #5

What’s great about this fifth law school personal statement  .

• Highlights achievements effectively: This writer does a fantastic job of incorporating their accomplishments and impact they had on their community without any sense of bragging or conceit. Rather, these accomplishments are related in terms of deep personal investment and a general drive to have a positive impact on those around them—without resorting to the cliches of simply stating "I want to help people." They show themselves helping others, and how these early experiences of doing so are a fundamental part of their drive to succeed with a career in law.   
• Shows originality: Additionally, they do a great job of explaining the uniqueness of their identity. The writer doesn't simply list their personal/cultural characteristics, but contextualizes them to show how they've shaped their path to law school. Being the child of a Buddhist mother and a Hindu father doesn’t imply anything about a person’s ability to study/practice law on its own, but explaining how this unique aspect of their childhood encouraged a passion for “discussion, active debate, and compromise” is profoundly meaningful to an admissions panel. Being able to express how fundamental aspects of law practice are an integral part of yourself is a hugely helpful tactic in a law school personal statement. 

If you\u2019re heading North of the border, check out list of  law schools in Canada  that includes requirements and stats on acceptance. ","label":"Tip","title":"Tip"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

Law School Personal Statement Example #6

What’s great about this sixth law school personal statement .

• Weaves in cultural background: Similar to the writer of personal statement #5, this student utilizes the cultural uniqueness of their childhood to show how their path to law school was both deeply personal and rooted in ideas pervasive in their early years. Unlike the writer of statement #5, this student doesn't shy away from explaining how this distinctiveness was often a source of alienation and difficulty. Yet this adversity is, as they note, ultimately what helped them be an adaptable and driven student, with a clear desire to make a positive impact on the kinds of situations that they witnessed affect their parents.  
• Describes setbacks while remaining positive: This writer also doesn't shy away from describing their temporary setbacks as both learning experiences and, crucially, springboards for positively informing their plans for the future. 

What’s Great About This Seventh Law School Personal Statement? 

• The writer takes accountability: One of the hardest things to accomplish in a personal statement is describing not just early setbacks that are out of your control but early mistakes for which you must take responsibility. The writer of this personal statement opens with descriptions of characteristics that most law schools would find problematic at best. But at the end of this introduction, they successfully utilize an epiphany, a game-changing moment in which they saw something beyond their early pathological aimlessness, to clearly mark the point at which they became focused on law.  
• The narrative structure is clear: They clearly describe the path forward from this moment on, showing how they remained focused on earning a law degree, and how they were able to work through successive experiences of confusion to persist in finishing their undergraduate education at a prestigious university. Of course, you shouldn't brag about such things for their own sake, but this writer makes the point of opening up about the unique feelings of inadequacy that come along with being the first person in their family to attend such a school, and how these feelings were—like their initial aimlessness—mobilized in service of their goal and the well-being of others. Their statement balances discussion of achievement with humility, which is a difficult but impactful tactic when done well. 

Law School Personal Statement Example #8

What’s great about this eighth law school personal statement .

• Shows commitment to the community: Commitment to one’s community is a prized value in both law students and law professionals. This writer successfully describes not only how they navigated the challenges in their group environments, such as their internship, the debate team, etc., but how these challenges strengthened their commitment to being a positive part of their communities. They don’t simply describe the skills and lessons they learned from these challenging environments, but also how these challenges ultimately made them even more committed to and appreciative of these kinds of dynamic, evolutionary settings.  
• Avoids negative description: They also avoid placing blame or negatively describing the people in these situations, instead choosing to characterize inherent difficulties in terms neutral to the people around them. In this way, you can describe extremely challenging environments without coming off as resentful, and identify difficulties without being accusatory or, worse yet, accidentally or indirectly seeming like part of the problem. This writer manages to convey the difficulty and complexity of these experiences while continually returning to their positive long-term impact, and though you shouldn’t seek to “bright-side” the troubles in your life you should absolutely point out how these experiences have made you a more capable and mature student. 

Watch this for more law school personal statement examples!

Law School Personal Statement Example #9

What’s great about this ninth law school personal statement  .

• The writer effectively describes how their background shaped their decision to pursue law: Expressing privilege as adversity is something that very few students should even attempt, and fewer still can actually pull it off. But the writer of this personal statement does just that in their second paragraph, describing how the ease and comfort of their upbringing could have been a source of laziness or detachment, and often is for particularly well-off students, but instead served as a basis for their ongoing commitment to addressing the inequalities and difficulties of those less comfortable. Describing how you’ve developed into an empathic and engaged person, worked selflessly in any volunteer experiences, and generally aimed your academic life at a career in law for the aid of others—all this is incredibly moving for an admissions board, and can help you discuss your determination and understanding of exactly why you desire a career in law.  
• The student shows adaptability, flexibility, and commitment: Additionally, this writer is able to show adaptability while describing their more prestigious appointments in a way that’s neither self-aggrandizing nor unappreciative. One of the big takeaways from this statement is the student’s commitment and flexibility, and these are both vitally important qualities to convey in your law school personal statement.  

Law School Personal Statement Example #10

What’s great about this tenth law school personal statement .

Shows passion: If you’re one of the rare students for whom service to others has always been a core belief, by all means find a novel and engaging way of making this the guiding principle of your personal statement. Don’t overdo it—don’t veer into poetry or lofty philosophizing—but by all means let your passion guide your pen (well…keyboard). Every step of the way, this student relates their highs and lows, their challenges and successes, to an extremely earnest and sincere set of altruistic values invoked at the very beginning of their statement. Law school admissions boards don’t exactly prize monomania, but they do value intense and sustained commitment.  

Shows maturity: This student also successfully elaborates this passion in relation to mature understanding. That is, they make repeated points about their developing understanding of law that sustains their hopefulness and emotional intensity while also incorporating knowledge of the sometimes troubling day-to-day challenges of the profession. Law schools aren’t looking for starry-eyed naivete, but they do value optimism and the ability to stay positive in a profession often defined by its difficulties and unpredictability. 

Every pre-law student blames their lack of success on the large number of applicants, the heartless admissions committee members, or the high GPA and LSAT score cut offs. Check out our blog on  law school acceptance rates  to find out more about the law school admission statistics for law schools in the US . Having taught more than a thousand students every year, I can tell you the REAL truth about why most students get rejected: 

Need tips on your law school resume?

8 Additional Law School Personal Statement Examples

Now that you have a better idea of what your law school personal statement should include, and how you can make it stand out, here are five additional law school personal statements for you to review and get some inspiration:

Law school personal statement example #11

According to the business wire, 51 percent of students are not confident in their career path when they enroll in college. I was one of those students for a long time. My parents had always stressed the importance of education and going to college, so I knew that I wanted to get a tertiary education, I just didn’t know in what field. So, like many other students, I matriculated undecided and started taking introductory courses in the subjects that interest me. I took classes from the department of literature, philosophy, science, statistics, business, and so many others but nothing really called out to me.

I figured that maybe if I got some practical experience, I might get more excited about different fields. I remembered that my high school counselor had told me that medicine would be a good fit for me, and I liked the idea of a career that involved constant learning. So, I applied for an observership at my local hospital. I had to cross “doctor” off my list of post-graduate career options when I fainted in the middle of a consultation in the ER.

I had to go back to the drawing board and reflect on my choices. I decided to stop trying to make an emotional decision and focus on the data. So, I looked at my transcript thus far, and it quickly became clear to me that I had both an interest and an aptitude for business and technology. I had taken more courses in those two fields than in any others, and I was doing very well in them. My decision was reaffirmed when I spent the summer interning at a digital marketing firm during my senior year in college and absolutely loved my experience. 

Since graduating, I have been working at that same firm and I am glad that I decided to major in business. I first started as a digital advertising assistant, and I quickly learned that the world of digital marketing is an incredibly fast-paced sink-or-swim environment. I didn’t mind it at all. I wanted to swim with the best of them and succeed. So far, my career in advertising has been challenging and rewarding in ways that I never could have imagined. 

I remember the first potential client that I handled on my own. Everything had been going great until they changed their mind about an important detail a day before we were supposed to present our pitch. . I had a day to research and re-do a presentation that I’d been preparing for weeks. I was sure that I’d be next on the chopping block, but once again all I had to was take a step back and look at the information that I had. Focusing on the big picture helped me come up with a new pitch, and after a long night, lots of coffee, and laser-like focus, I delivered a presentation that I was not only proud of, but that landed us the client. 

Three years and numerous client emergencies later, I have learned how to work under pressure, how to push myself, and how to think critically. I also have a much better understanding of who I am and what skills I possess. One of the many things that I have learned about myself over the course of my career is that I am a fan of the law. Over the past three years, I have worked with many lawyers to navigate the muddy waters of user privacy and digital media. I often find myself looking forward to working with our legal team, whereas my coworkers actively avoid them. I have even become friends with my colleagues on the legal team who also enjoy comparing things like data protection laws in the US and the EU and speculating about the future of digital technology regulation. 

These experiences and conversations have led me to a point where I am interested in various aspects of the law. I now know that I have the skills required to pursue a legal education and that this time around, I am very sure about what I wish to study. Digital technology has evolved rapidly over the last decade, and it is just now starting to become regulated. I believe that this shift is going to open up a more prominent role for those who understand both digital technology and its laws, especially in the corporate world. My goal is to build a career at the intersection of these worlds.

Law school personal statement example #12

The first weekend I spent on my undergrad college campus was simultaneously one of the best and worst of my life. I was so excited to be away from home, on my own, making new friends and trying new things. One of those things was a party at a sorority house with my friend and roommate, where I thought we both had a great time. Both of us came from small towns, and we had decided to look out for one another. So, when it was time to go home, and I couldn't find her, I started to worry. I spent nearly an hour looking for her before I got her message saying she was already back in our dorm. 

It took her three months to tell me that she had been raped that night. Her rapist didn't hold a knife to her throat, jump out of a dark alleyway, or slip her a roofie. Her rapist was her long-term boyfriend, with whom she'd been in a long-distance relationship for just over a year. He assaulted her in a stranger's bedroom while her peers, myself included, danced the night away just a few feet away. 

I remember feeling overwhelmed when she first told me. I was sad for my friend, angry on her behalf, and disgusted by her rapist's actions. I also felt incredibly guilty because I had been there when it happened. I told myself that I should have stayed with her all night and that I should have seen the abuse - verbal and physical harassment- that he was inflicting on her before it turned sexual. But eventually, I realized that thinking about what could, should, or would've happened doesn't help anyone. 

I watched my friend go through counseling, attend support groups, and still, she seemed to be hanging on by a thread. I couldn't begin to imagine what she was going through, and unfortunately, there was very little I could do to help her. So, I decided to get involved with the Sexual Assault Responders Group on campus, where I would actually be able to help another survivor. 

My experience with the Sexual Assault Responders Group on campus was eye-opening. I mostly worked on the peer-to-peer hotline, where I spoke to survivors from all walks of life. I was confronted by the fact that rape is not a surreal unfortunate thing that happens to a certain type of person. I learned that it happens daily to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and friends. I also learned that most survivors try to manage this burden on their own, afraid of judgment and repercussions and fearful of a he-said-she-said court battle.

I am proud to say that I used my time in college to not only earn an education, but also to advocate for survivors of sexual assault. I protested the university's cover-up of a gang rape that took place in one of the fraternity houses on campus. I spearheaded a 'no means no' campaign to raise awareness about consent on campus. I also led several fundraising campaigns for the Sexual Assault Responders Group that allowed us to pay for legal and mental health counselors for the survivors who came to us for support. 

One of the things that this experience helped me realize is that sexual assault survivors often do not know where to turn when the system tries to tell them that it'd be best to just keep quiet and suffer in silence. My goal is to become one of those people that they can turn to for counsel and support. I believe that a law degree would give me the knowledge and tools that I need to advocate for survivors on a more significant scale. 

Need tips for your law school optional essays? Check out this infographic:

Law school personal statement example #13

I grew up in two different worlds. My world at home was full of people of various skin tones and accents. It was small, loud, and often chaotic in the best ways. I remember walking home and getting to experience music from across the world before I got to my apartment building. Loud reggaeton and afrobeat were always playing somewhere in the distance. Aunties and uncles usually stopped by unannounced and slipped money in your palm when they hugged you goodbye. And the smell of fried plantains was almost always present. 

My other world was in school. It was a much quieter, more organized world with white hallways, navy blazers, and plaid skirts. It was full of people who did not look or sound like me and teachers who thought my hair was "interesting." It was also full of great books and engaging debates about everything from foreign policy to the influence of Jazz on hip hop. 

I lived in these two worlds because I was born and raised in Xtown, but I went to a private school in a much richer neighborhood. I loved both of my worlds, but I hated that I had to act differently in both of them. When in school, I had to "code switch" to sound like I belonged there. When I was at home, all the people who shared the interests I was developing in school were either working or in college, so I had no one to talk to about them. 

My words never felt more divided until I started considering a career in law. I remember telling one of my uncles that I wanted to become a lawyer and his response was, "So you want to become the man, huh?" 

I wasn't surprised by his response, or at least I shouldn't have been. One of the things that I know for sure about the first world I lived in is that many of its inhabitants do not trust the law. I had believed this for so long simply because of the conversations that I would hear around me. However, in my second world, I was learning about all of these great freedoms and rights that the law was designed to give all Americans, and I wanted to bring those to my community. 

I started working on this during the summer before my final year of high school. I got an internship with the legal aid office in my neighborhood and spent three months learning from people who, like me, had grown up in Xtown and wanted to help people. During my time in the legal aid office, I understood that the people in my community did not trust the law for two main reasons: 1. They did not understand a lot of it, and 2. It had been used against people like us many times. 

I remember one particular case that Ms. Sharma - the lawyer I was learning from then and who still mentors me today - handled that summer. It was the case of a young mother who had received a notice of eviction from her landlord two days after refusing his advances. The man claimed that she violated her contract because she made homemade shea butter that she sold on Etsy. Ms. Sharma had me look through her rental agreement. After she confirmed that I was right in determining that the young mother had not violated her contract, she contacted the landlord to advise him that what he was doing was intimidation and sexual harassment. 

My experiences in the legal aid office with Ms. Sharma opened my eyes to the disgusting behavior of human beings, but it also gave me the opportunity to see that the law was my opportunity to use what I learned in my second world to help the community that I was raised in. I returned to school with a new motivation that followed me to college. In addition to completing my bachelor's degree in sociology and African American studies, I spent most of my college years participating in legal internships and community outreach programs. 

I believe that these experiences have given me the foundation I need to be a successful law student and, eventually, a lawyer who can truly be an advocate for members of his community. 

Law school personal statement example #14

One day, my parents noticed that the other children in my age group had been speaking and communicating, but I had not. At first, they thought that my lack of speech was just me being shy, but eventually, they realized that on the rare occasions that I did speak, my words were practically incomprehensible. It wasn't long before they took me to a specialist who diagnosed me with a severe phonological disorder that hindered my ability to verbalize the basic sounds that make up words.

I started going to speech therapy when I was three years old. I saw numerous speech therapists, many of whom believed that I would never be able to communicate effectively with others. Lucky for me, my parents did not give up on me. I went to speech therapy thrice a week until the 8th grade, and I gave every single session my all. I also spent a lot of time in my room practicing my speech by myself. My efforts paid off, and even though I didn't become a chatterbox overnight, I could at least communicate effectively. 

This was a short-lived victory, though. A year later, my speech impediment was back, and my ability to articulate words was once again severely limited. This complicated matters because it was my freshman year of high school, and I was in a brand-new school where I did not know anyone. Having been bullied in middle school, I knew first-hand how vicious kids can be, and I didn't want to be the butt of any more jokes, so I didn't try to speak at school. I knew that this was preventing me from making new friends or participating in class and that it was probably not helping my impediment, but I was not ready to face the fact that I needed to go back to speech therapy. 

Eventually, I stopped resisting and went back to speech therapy. At the time, I saw it as accepting defeat, and even though my speech improved significantly, my self-confidence was lower than it had ever been. If you ask any of my high school classmates about me, they will likely tell you that I am very quiet or timid – both of which are not true, but they have no way of knowing otherwise. I barely spoke or interacted with my peers for most of high school. Instead, I focused on my studies and extracurricular activities that didn't involve much collaboration, like yearbook club and photography. 

It was only when I was getting ready for college that I realized that I was only hurting myself with my behavior. I knew I needed to become more confident about my speech to make friends and be the student I wanted to be in college. So, I used the summer after my high school graduation to get some help. I started seeing a new speech therapist who was also trained as a counselor, and she helped me understand my impediment better. For example, I now know that I tend to stutter when stressed, but I also know that taking a few deep breaths helps me get back on track. 

Using the confidence that I built in therapy that summer, I went to college with a new pep in my step. I pushed myself to meet new people, try new things, and join extracurricular organizations when I entered college. I applied to and was accepted into a competitive freshman leadership program called XYZ. Most of XYZ's other members were outgoing and highly involved in their high school communities. In other words, they were the complete opposite of me. I didn't let that intimidate me. Instead, I made a concerted effort to learn from them. If you ask any of my teammates or other classmates in college, they will tell you that I was an active participant in discussions during meetings and that I utilized my unique background to share a different perspective.

My experience with XYZ made it clear to me that my speech disorder wouldn't hold me back as long as I did not stand in my own way. Once I understood this, I kept pushing past the boundaries I had set for myself. I began taking on leadership roles in the program and looking for ways to contribute to my campus community outside of XYZ. For example, I started a community outreach initiative that connected school alumni willing to provide pro bono services to different members of the community who were in need. 

Now, when I look back at my decision to go back to speech therapy, I see it as a victory. I understand that my speech impediment has shaped me in many ways, many of which are positive. My struggles have made me more compassionate. My inability to speak has made me a better listener. Not being able to ask questions or ask for help has made me a more independent critical thinker. I believe these skills will help me succeed in law school, and they are part of what motivates me to apply in the first place. Having struggled for so long to speak up for myself, I am ready and eager for the day when I can speak up for others who are temporarily unable to. 

“ You talk too much; you should be a lawyer.” 

I heard that sentence often while growing up because Congolese people always tell children who talk a lot that they should be lawyers. Sometimes I wonder if those comments did not subconsciously trigger my interest in politics and then the law. If they did, I am grateful for it. I am thankful for all the experiences that have brought me to this point where I am seeking an education that will allow me to speak for those who don’t always know how to, and, more importantly, those who are unable to. 

For context, I am the child of Congolese immigrants, and my parents have a fascinating story that I will summarize for you: 

A 14-year-old girl watches in confusion as a swarm of parents rush through the classroom, grabbing their children, and other students start running from the class. Soon she realizes that she and one other student are the only ones left, but when they both hear the first round of gunshots, no one has to tell them that it is time to run home. On the way home, she hears more gunshots and bombs. She fears for her survival and that of her family, and she starts to wonder what this war means for her and her family. Within a few months, her mother and father are selling everything they own so that they can board a plane to the US.

On the other side of the town, a 17-year-old boy is being forced to board a plane to the US because his mother, a member of parliament and the person who taught him about the importance of integrity, has been executed by the same group of soldiers who are taking over the region. 

They met a year later, outside the principal’s office at a high school in XXY. They bonded over the many things they have in common and laughed at the fact that their paths probably never would have crossed in Bukavu. Fast forward to today, they have been married for almost two decades and have raised three children, including me. 

Growing up in a Congolese household in the US presented was very interesting. On the one hand, I am very proud of the fact that I get to share my heritage with others. I speak French, Lingala, and Swahili – the main languages of Congo – fluently. I often dress in traditional clothing; I performed a traditional Congolese dance at my high school’s heritage night and even joined the Congolese Student Union at Almamatter University. 

On the other hand, being Congolese presented its challenges growing up. At a young age, I looked, dressed, and sounded different from my classmates. Even though I was born in the US, I had picked up a lot of my parents’ accents, and kids loved to tease me about it. Ignorant comments and questions were not uncommon. “Do you speak African?” “You’re not American! How did you get here?” “You don’t look African” “My mom says I can’t play with you because your parents came here to steal our jobs”. These are some of the polite comments that I heard often, and they made me incredibly sad, especially when classmates I considered my friends made them. 

My parents did not make assimilating any easier. My mother especially always feared I would lose my Congolese identity if they did not make it a point to remind me of it. She often said, “Just because you were born in America doesn’t mean that you are not Congolese anymore.” On one occasion, I argued that she always let me experience my Congolese side, but not my American side. That was the first time she told me I should be a lawyer. 

Having few friends and getting teased in school helped me learn to be comfortable on my own. I Often found refuge and excitement in books. I even started blogging about the books I read and interacting with other readers online. As my following grew, I started to use my platform to raise awareness about issues that I am passionate about, like climate change, the war in Congo, and the homeless crisis here in XXY. I was able to start a fundraising campaign through my blog that raised just under $5000 for the United Way – a local charity that helps the homeless in my city. 

This experience helped me understand that I could use my skills and the few tools at my disposal to help people, both here in America and one day, maybe even in Congo. I realized that I am lucky enough to have the option of expanding that skillset through education in order to do more for the community that welcomed my grandparents, uncles, aunties, and parents when they had nowhere else to go. 

The journey was not easy because while I received immense support and love from my family for continuing my education, I had to teach myself how to prepare and apply to college. Once there I had to learn on my own what my professors expected of me, how to study, how to network, and so much more. I am grateful for those experiences too, because they taught me how to be resourceful, research thoroughly, listen carefully, and seek help when I need it. 

All of these experiences have crafted me into who I am today, and I believe that with the right training, they will help me become a great attorney.

Law School Personal Statement Example #16

During my undergraduate studies, in the first two years, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do with my career. I enjoyed doing research, but I found that I became more interested in presenting the research than the process of contributing to it. I spoke to most of my science professors to ask if I could participate in their research. I worked in biology labs, chemistry labs, and in psychology classrooms working on a variety of projects that seemed meaningful and interesting. I gained new perspectives on study habits and mental health; the influence of music on the human mind; and applications of surface tension. I noticed that I was always taking the lead when we were presenting our findings to peers and research groups. I enjoyed yielding questions and addressing the captivating the audience with engaging gestures and speech. This was what led me to consider a career in law.

I always thought that I would become a scientist, so when I discovered that there were aspects of law that could be considered “scientific”, I was all ears. Still during my second year of undergraduate studies, I wanted to join an environmental awareness group, but noticed there weren’t any active. So, I took it upon myself to create my own. I wanted to do cleanup projects across the city, so I mapped out parks and areas that we could walk or drive to. I advertised my project to other students and eventually gained approximately fifteen students eager to help out. I was struck by the pollution in the water, the negligence of park maintenance. I drafted a letter to the municipal government and petitioned for a stricter environmental compliance approach. I wanted to advertise fines to hold polluters accountable, as there were hardly any to enforce the rules. A letter was returned to me stating that the government would consider my request. I felt a sense of gratification, of purpose; I discovered that I had the ability to enact change through policy. This drew me closer to the prospect of building a future in law, so I looked at other avenues to learn more.

I still wanted to find a way to bring together my love of science and discourse/communication. As a science student, I had the privilege of learning from professors who emphasized critical thinking; and they gave me a chance to learn that on my own. I took an internship as an environmental planner. There, I helped present project ideas to various groups, updating demographic/development information, and managing planning processes. I engaged in analytical thinking by looking at maps and demographic information to develop potential plans for land use. It was also the experience I was looking for in terms of a balance between science and oral communication. Using data analysis, I spoke to other planners and review boards to bring ideas together and execute a plan.

Through science, I learned how to channel my curiosity and logical thinking; as an advocate, I learned how to be creative and resourceful. Presenting research findings and being questioned in front of a group of qualified researchers, having to be sharp and ready for anything, taught me how to be more concise in speech. Developing an advocacy group dedicated to improving my community showed me what it lacked; it opened my eyes to the impact of initiative and focused collaboration. I was eager to begin another science project, this time with the environment in mind. It was titled “determining and defining the role of sociodemographic factors in air pollution health disparities”. I compiled and summarized relevant research and sent it over to a representative of the municipal government. In a couple of weeks, my request to increase advertising of fines in public areas was agreed to.

This Juris Doctor/Master in Environmental Studies program will allow me to continue deepening my knowledge of environmental law. With my goal of developing a career in environmental affairs, overseeing policies that influence land protection/use, I know that this program will give me the tools I need to succeed. With my experience working with large groups, I also believe I will fit into the larger class sizes at your institution. I understand the value of working together and how to engage in healthy discourse. With your Global Sustainability Certification, I will equip myself the expertise I need to produce meaningful change in environmental policy.

Here's how a law school advisor can help you with your application:

Law School Personal Statement #17

Growing up in a poor neighborhood, what my friends used to call “the ghetto”, I was always looking for my way out. I tried running away, but I always ended up back home in that tiny complex, barely enough room to fit all my brothers and sisters with my parents. My dad was disabled and couldn’t work, and my mother was doing her best working full-time as a personal-support worker. There was nothing we could do to get out of our situation, or so it seemed. It wasn’t until years later when I started my undergraduate degree that ironically, after I found my way out, that I began looking for a way to come back. I wanted to be a voice for people living in those bleak conditions; hungry, without work. Helpless.

Getting my degree in social work was one of the best decisions of my life. It gave me the tools to lobby for solutions to problems in poor communities. I knew my neighborhood better than anyone because I grew up there. I had the lived experience. I started working with the local government to develop programs for my clients; the people living in those same neighborhoods. We worked to provide financial assistance, legal aid, housing, and medical treatment—all things sorely lacking. My proudest moment was securing the funds and arranging surgery for my father’s bad hip and knees. I’m currently working on a large project with one of the community legislators to lobby for a harm reduction model addressing addiction in our communities.

With five years of experience as a social worker, I knew it was time for a career change when I learned that I could have more influence on public opinion and legislative decisions as a social-security disability lawyer. I knew firsthand that people victimized from racism, poverty, and injury needed more help than they were currently allotted. I knew that, from becoming and advocate and communicating with influential members of the local government, that I could do more with a law degree helping people attain basic needs like disability benefits, which are often denied outright.

This desire to help people get the help they need from local programs and government resources brought me to Scarborough, a small town outside of Toronto. I was aware of some of the issues afflicting this community, since I’d handled a few clients from there as a children’s disability social worker. Addiction and homelessness were the two main ones. I worked with children with ADHD or other physical/mental disabilities impairing their ability to attend school and function normally. I helped many of them get an IEP with the details of the special services they require, long overdue. I made sure each child got the care they needed, including special attention in school. Also noticing that so many of these families lacked proper nutrition, I organized a report detailing this finding. In it, I argued that the community needed more funds targeting lowest income families. I spoke directly with a legislator, which eventually got the city on board with developing a program more specifically for the lowest income families with residents under 18.

My goal has always been to be a voice for the inaudible, the ignored, who’ve been victimized by inadequate oversight from the ground up. Many of these groups, as I’ve witnessed firsthand, don’t have the luxury of being their own advocates. They are too busy trying to support their families, to put food on the table for their children. I’ve realized that it isn’t quite enough to work directly with these families to connect them with resources and ensure they get the support they need. Sometimes the support simply doesn’t exist, or it isn’t good enough. This is why I’m motivated to add a law degree to my credentials so I can better serve these people and communities. As a future social-security disability lawyer, I want to work with local governments to assist clients in navigating an assistance system and improving it as much as possible. This program will give me the access to a learning environment in which I can thrive and develop as an advocate.

Law School Personal Statement #18

“You’re worthy and loved”, I said to a twelve-year-old boy, Connor, whom I was supervising and spending time with during the Big Brother program at which we met. A few tears touched my shoulder as I pulled him into me, comforting him. He was a foster child. He didn’t know his parents and never stayed in one place longer than a few months; a year if he was lucky. I joined the program not expecting much. I was doing it for extra credit, because I wanted to give back to the community somehow and I thought it would be interesting to meet people. He confided in me; he told me that his foster parents often yelled at each other, and him. He told me he needed to escape. I called Child Protective Services and after a thorough investigation, they determined that Connor’s foster parents weren’t fit for fostering. He was moved, yet again, to a different home.

I wrote an op-ed detailing my experience as a Big Brother. I kept names anonymous. I wanted people to know how hard it was for children in the welfare system. Many of them, like Connor, were trapped in a perpetual cycle of re-homing, neglect, and even abuse. He and other children deserve stability and unconditional love. That should go without saying. I sent the op-ed to a local magazine and had it published. In it, I described not only the experience of one unfortunate kid, but many others as well who saw their own stories being told through Connor. I joined a non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to quality education for young people. I started learning about disparities in access; students excluded by racial or financial barriers. I was learning, one step at a time, how powerful words can be.

With the non-profit organization, I reached out to a few public schools in the area to represent some of our main concerns with quality of education disparities. Our goal was to bring resources together and promote the rights of children in education. We emphasized that collaboration between welfare agencies and schools was critical for education stability. Together, we created a report of recommendations to facilitate this collaboration. We outlined a variety of provisions, including more mechanisms for child participation, better recruitment of social service workers in schools, risk management and identification strategies, and better support for students with child protection concerns.

The highlight of that experience was talking to an assembly of parents and school faculty to present our findings and recommendations. The title of the presentation was “The Power of Words”. I opened with the story I wrote about in the op-ed. I wanted to emphasize that children are individuals; those trapped in the welfare system are not a monolith. They each have unique experiences, needs, and desires they want to fulfill in life. But our tools to help them can be improved, more individualized. I spoke about improving the quality of residential care for children and the need to promote their long-term development into further education and employment. Finally, I presented a list of tools we created to help support a more financially sustainable and effective child welfare system. The talk was received with applause and a tenuous commitment from a few influential members of the crowd. It was a start.

Although I lost contact with Connor, I think about him almost every day. I can only hope that the programs we worked on to improve were helping him, wherever he was. I want to continue to work on the ground level of child welfare amelioration, but I realize I will need an education in law to become a more effective advocate for this cause. There are still many problems in the child welfare system that will need to be addressed: limited privacy/anonymity for children, service frameworks that don’t address racism adequately, limited transportation in remote communities, and many more. I’ve gained valuable experience working with the community and learning about what the welfare system lacks and does well. I’m ready to take the next step for myself, my community, and those beyond it.

Assuredly, but this length varies from school to school. As with all important details of your law school application, thoroughly research your specific schools’ requirements and guidelines before both writing and editing your personal statement to ensure it fits their specifics. The average length is about 2 pages, but don’t bother drafting your statement until you have specific numbers from your schools of choice. It’s also a good idea to avoid hitting the maximum length unless absolutely necessary. Be concise, keep economy of language in mind, and remain direct, without rambling or exhaustive over-explanation of your ideas or experiences.

You should keep any words that aren’t your own to a minimum. Admissions committees don’t want to read a citation-heavy academic paper, nor do they respond well to overused famous quotes as themes in personal statements. If you absolutely must include a quote from elsewhere, be sure to clearly indicate your quote’s source. But in general, it’s best to keep the personal statement restricted to your own words and thoughts. They’re evaluating you, not Plato! It’s a personal statement. Give them an engaging narrative in your own voice. 

Admissions committees will already have a strong sense of your academic performance through your transcripts and test scores, so discussing these in your personal statement is generally best avoided. You can contextualize these things, though—if you have an illuminating or meaningful story about how you came to receive an award, or how you enjoyed or learned from the work that won you the award, then consider discussing it. Overall though, it’s best to let admissions committees evaluate your academic qualifications and accomplishments from your transcripts and official documents, and give them something new in the personal statement. 

When you first sit down to begin, cast a wide net. Consider all the many influences and experiences that have led you to where you are. You’ll eventually (through editing and rewriting) explain how these shape your relationship to a career in law, but one of the best things you can give yourself during the initial drafting phase is a vast collection of observations and potential points for development. As the New England School of Law points out in their, “just write!” Let the initial draft be as messy as it needs to be, and refine it from there. It’s a lot easier to condense and sharpen a big draft than it is to try to tensely craft a perfect personal statement from nothing.  

Incredibly important, as should be clear by now! Unlike other specialties, law schools don’t usually conduct interviews with applicants, so your personal statement is in effect your one opportunity to speak with the admissions committee directly. Don’t let that gravity overwhelm you when you write, but keep it in mind as you edit and dedicate time to improving your initial drafts. Be mindful of your audience as you speak with them, and treat writing your personal statement as a kind of initial address in what, hopefully, will eventually turn into an ongoing dialogue.  

There are a variety of factors that can make or break a law school personal statement. You should aim to achieve at least a few of the following: a strong opening hook; a compelling personal narrative; your skills and competencies related to law; meaningful experiences; why you’re the right fit for the school and program.

Often, they do. It’s best for you to go to the schools you’re interesting in applying to so you can find out if they have any specific formatting or content requirements. For example, if you wanted to look at NYU law or Osgoode Hall Law School , you would find their admissions requirements pages and look for information on the personal statement.

There are lots of reasons why a personal statement might not work. Usually, applicants who don’t get accepted didn’t come up with a good strategy for this essay. Remember, you need to target the specific school and program. Other reasons are that the applicant doesn’t plan or proofread their essay. Both are essential for submitting materials that convince the admissions committee that you’re a strong candidate. You can always use law school admissions consulting application review to help you develop your strategy and make your essay stand out.

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How long should a Personal Statement be? Is there any rule on that?

BeMo Academic Consulting

Hello V! Thanks for your question. Some schools will gave very specific word limits, while some will not. If you do not have a limit indicated, try to stick to no more than a page, 600-800 words. 

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Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story

Upon his departure from court, former President Donald Trump briefly spoke on Thursday. Trump said the judge is totally conflicted and should not be having this case over Trump’s hush money trial after being held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order.

Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president. Testimony resumes Friday.

Former President Donald Trump sits inside Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 2 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

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Former President Donald Trump inside Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 2 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump talks to the media outside Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 2 2024. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.

A visibly irritated Trump leaned forward at the defense table, and jurors appeared riveted as prosecutors played the September 2016 recording that attorney Michael Cohen secretly made of himself briefing his celebrity client on a plan to buy Karen McDougal’s story of an extramarital relationship.

What to know about Trump’s hush money trial:

• Follow the latest updates as Stormy Daniels returns to the witness stand.
• A guide to terms used in the Trump trial.
• Trump is the first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
• Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.

Though the recording surfaced years ago, it is perhaps the most colorful piece of evidence presented to jurors so far to connect Trump to the hush money payments at the center of his criminal trial in Manhattan. It followed hours of testimony from a lawyer who negotiated the deal for McDougal’s silence and admitted to being stunned that his hidden-hand efforts might have contributed to Trump’s White House victory.

AP AUDIO: Prosecutors seek additional sanctions for Trump in hush money case as key witness resumes testimony.

Here are GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s full remarks before heading into the courtroom.

“What have we done?” attorney Keith Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer, which had buried stories of sexual encounters to prevent them surfacing in the final days of the bitterly contested presidential race. “Oh my god,” came the response from Dylan Howard.

“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way...our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson told jurors, though he acknowledged under cross-examination that he dealt directly with Cohen and never Trump.

The testimony from Davidson was designed to directly connect the hush money payments to Trump’s presidential ambitions and to bolster prosecutors’ argument that the case is about interference in the 2016 election rather than simply sex and money. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

“This is sort of gallows humor. It was on election night as the results were coming in,” Davidson explained. “There was sort of surprise amongst the broadcasters and others that Mr. Trump was leading in the polls, and there was a growing sense that folks were about ready to call the election.”

Davidson is seen as a vital building block for the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies schemed to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He represented both McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels in negotiations that resulted in the purchase of rights to their claims of sexual encounters with Trump and those stories getting squelched, a tabloid industry practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

Davidson is one of multiple key players testifying in advance of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence and also recorded himself, weeks before the election, telling Trump about a plan to purchase the rights to McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer so it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.

At one point in the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about “how to set the whole thing up with funding.” To which Trump can be heard responding: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

Trump can be heard suggesting that the payment be made with cash, prompting Cohen to object by saying “no” multiple times. Trump can then be heard saying “check” before the recording cuts off.

Trump’s lawyers sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential harm of Davidson’s testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he never had any interactions with Trump — only Cohen. In fact, Davidson said, he had never been in the same room as Trump until his testimony.

He also said he was unfamiliar with the Trump Organization’s record-keeping practices and that any impressions he had of Trump himself came through others.

“I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr. Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him,” Davidson said.

The line of questioning from Trump attorney Emil Bove appeared intended to cast Trump as removed from the negotiations and to suggest that Cohen was handling the hush-money matters on his own.

Bove also noted that Davidson had been involved in similar payments for clients that had nothing to do with presidential politics, grilling him about previous instances in which he solicited money to suppress embarrassing stories, including one involving wrestler Hulk Hogan.

By the time Davidson negotiated hush money payments for McDougal and Daniels, he was “pretty well versed in coming right up to the line without committing extortion, right?” Bove asked

“I had familiarized myself with the law,” Davidson replied.

Also Thursday, jurors viewed a confidential agreement requiring Daniels to keep quiet about her claims that she had a tryst with the married Trump a decade earlier. The agreement, dated less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, called for her to receive $130,000 in exchange for her silence.

The money was paid by Cohen, and the agreement referred to both Trump and Daniels with pseudonyms: David Dennison and Peggy Peterson.

“It is understood and agreed that the true name and identity of the person referred to as ‘DAVID DENNISON’ in the Settlement Agreement is Donald Trump,” the document stated, with Trump’s name written in by hand.

After the payment was made, Trump’s company reimbursed Cohen and logged the payments to him as legal expenses, prosecutors have said in charging the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison.

While testifying Thursday, Davidson also recalled Cohen ranting to him about Trump in a phone conversation about a month after the 2016 election, complaining that he had been passed over for a job in the new administration and that Trump had yet to reimburse him for the Daniels payment.

He also recalled Cohen telling him that he and Trump were “very upset” when The Wall Street Journal published an article that exposed a separate $150,000 National Enquirer arrangement with McDougal, who has said she and Trump had an affair, just days before the election.

“He wanted to know who the source of the article was, why someone would be the source of this type of article. He was very upset about the timing,” Davidson said of Cohen. “He stated that his boss was very upset, and he threatened to sue Karen McDougal.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied relationships with either woman, as well as any wrongdoing in the case.

Before the start of testimony, prosecutors requested $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case. Such a penalty would be on top of a $9,000 fine that Judge Juan M. Merchan imposed Tuesday related to nine separate violations that he found.

Merchan did not immediately rule on the request for fresh sanctions, though he indicated he was not particularly concerned about one of the four statements flagged by prosecutors.

The prospect of further punishment underscores the challenges Trump the presidential candidate faces in adjusting to the role of criminal defendant subject to rigid courtroom protocol that he does not control. It also remains to be seen whether any rebuke from the court will lead Trump to adjust his behavior given the campaign trail benefit he believes he derives from painting the case as politically motivated.

Watch CBS News

Jury in Trump trial gets inside look into payments to Michael Cohen

• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-trial-week-4-witnesses-testimony/ link copied

By Graham Kates , Taurean Small

Updated on: May 6, 2024 / 7:55 PM EDT / CBS News

Jurors in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York heard testimony Monday about how the business records at the center of the case were crafted, with attorneys questioning two Trump Organization employees about their involvement in payments to Michael Cohen.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsification of business records and has pleaded not guilty. Each of those counts corresponds to a record that stemmed from a series of monthly payments to Cohen in 2017.

Prosecutors say the funds — $35,000 a month — were meant to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, plus a bonus and enough money to cover taxes. In exchange, Daniels agreed to remain quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump from years earlier, which he denies. 

Two witnesses involved in the payments to Cohen told jurors on Monday about how they were handled internally. Jeffrey McConney, the longtime controller for the Trump Organization, recalled how the chief financial officer of the company directed him to pay Cohen in monthly installments, beginning in February 2017. 

At first, the checks were issued from a trust that was set up to manage Trump's assets while he was in office. They eventually came from Trump's personal account, a change that meant his signature was required.

Deborah Tarasoff, an accountant at the Trump Organization, told jurors about how she handled invoices from Cohen and got the checks signed. "We would send them to the White House for him to sign," Tarasoff said, referring to Trump. The payments were documented in ledger entries.

Earlier in the day, Judge Juan Merchan held Trump in contempt of court for violating his gag order in the case for the 10th time. Merchan fined Trump $1,000 and warned that he could face jail time for future infractions.

Here's how the day in court unfolded, as it happened:

Judge finds Trump in contempt for 10th time, warns of jail for more gag order violations

Addressing the court, Judge Juan Merchan said he was finding Trump in contempt of court for the 10th time, and imposing another $1,000 fine, for violating the gag order limiting what Trump can say about those involved in the case. The judge warned that the penalty would be harsher if Trump continues to violate the order.

"It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent, therefore, going forward, this court will have to consider a jail sanction if it is recommended," Merchan said.

In his  written order , Merchan said Trump violated the order in an interview he gave on April 22. "That jury was picked so fast — 95% Democrats. The area's mostly all Democrat," Trump said on Real America's Voice. "It's a very unfair situation, that I can tell you."

Trump, Merchan wrote, "not only called into question the integrity, and therefore the legitimacy of these proceedings, but again raised the specter of fear for the safety of the jurors and of their loved ones."

Merchan said three other instances raised by prosecutors, including two about Cohen, didn't violate the order.

"Mr. Trump, the last thing I want to do is put you in jail. You are a former president of the United States and possibly the next one as well," Merchan said on the bench, acknowledging that "to take that step would be disruptive to the proceedings." 

He said he worries about court officers and Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the former president.

"I worry about them, and about what would go into executing such a sanction," Merchan said. "The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me."

"At the end of the day I have a job to do, and part of that job is protecting the dignity of" the proceedings and the criminal justice system, Merchan said, adding that the gag order violations "constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue."

• https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-trial-week-4-witnesses-testimony/#post-update-022c0d4e link copied

Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney called to the stand

A man who for decades served as one of the Trump Organization's top executives was called to testify Monday.

Jeffrey McConney, the company's retired controller, is no stranger to the stand. He testified at the Trump Organization's 2022 criminal trial, where the company was found guilty of 17 felony counts related to tax fraud. He was both a defendant and a witness called by New York Attorney General Letitia James in the company's civil fraud trial, in which Trump and others were found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.

McConney is expected to testify about the mechanics of payments and financial decisions at the company. Prosecutors have indicated he instructed an employee to log payments to Cohen as payments for ongoing legal services, as opposed to reimbursements for Cohen's wire to Daniels.

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Trump in court with a larger-than-normal entourage

An unusually large group of aides and lawyers is accompanying Trump in court today.  

Eric Trump is here for the second time since proceedings began. He's sitting next to Alina Habba, who previously represented the first witness of the day, Jeffrey McConney, in the civil fraud matter. She has not typically attended this trial.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, is also here.

Trump aides Boris Epshteyn and Jason Miller are in court, as well. That's not unusual.

One person not in attendance: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who often forgoes attendance at these proceedings while doing the work of running one of the country's largest prosecutor's offices.

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"Wire monthly from DJT": McConney describes instructions to reimburse Cohen

As much as this trial is about salacious headlines and tabloid drama, it's also about accounting.

McConney explained how Cohen's $130,000 wire to Daniels' attorney in October 2016 led to a series of 12 monthly payments to Cohen of $35,000, for a total of $420,000.

McConney recounted a conversation with former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg in January 2017, around the time that Trump assumed the presidency.

McConney said Weisselberg walked in with a notepad and said he needed to discuss payments to be made to Cohen.

"He kind of threw the pad at me and said, 'Take this down,'" McConney said, adding that he was also given a copy of a Cohen bank statement showing his $130,000 wire to Daniels' lawyer. Jurors were shown McConney's notes from that day, which appeared beneath "Trump" letterhead.

The notes showed a series of scrawled math, with a base pay of $180,000 — for the Daniels wire, plus $50,000 he had paid to a technology services firm — doubled to $360,000.

McConney said the doubling was a practice called "grossing up," in which the company increased certain payments to executives to offset a potential 50% tax rate.

Added to the $360,000 was a $60,000 bonus, which McConney mistakenly listed as $50,000 before correcting the total. McConney said Cohen had complained about having not received a large enough bonus at the end of 2016, and this was meant to remedy that.

The notes included calculations, mirrored by those written by Weisselberg on Cohen's statements : $420,000 divided by 12 equals monthly payments of $35,000.

Finally, near the bottom, McConney wrote a note he said meant that the payments were supposed to come from Trump's personal bank account: "Wire monthly from DJT."

Despite that instruction, the first few checks were sent from a trust set up to hold Trump's assets while he was in office. Its trustees were Weisselberg and Trump's two adult sons.

But in late March of that year, they made the decision to have payments going forward come straight from Trump's personal account. That meant the only person who could sign for them was the president of the United States, McConney said.

"At some point we had to start getting the checks to the White House for President Trump to sign," McConney said. "It was a whole new process for us."

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Prosecution concludes direct examination of McConney

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo finished his direct examination of McConney by going through Trump's 2018 Office of Government Ethics filing. 

It includes a note that Trump paid Cohen in 2017, for services rendered in 2016. The form listed the amount as between $100,000 and $250,000, far below the $420,000 Cohen received in 2017.

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Trump attorney argues payments to Cohen were for legal services

On cross-examination, Trump attorney Emil Bove portrayed the documentation of payments to Cohen as for genuine ongoing legal services — as opposed to reimbursements for his payment to Stormy Daniels.

He noted that Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization CFO, never specifically said what the payments were for, or what he meant when he told McConney to "gross up" the payment.

The invoices and ledger entries reflect that the payments were made under a "retainer agreement." Prosecutors have said no such agreement existed.

"Retainer agreements can be verbal, right?" Bove asked. McConney agreed.

Prosecutor Matthew Colanegelo asked whether, after leaving the Trump Organization, McConney learned "that there were matters Mr. Weisselberg kept you in the dark about."

"Yes," McConney said.

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Prosecutors call Deborah Tarasoff, Trump Organization employee who prepared checks for Cohen

After a break for lunch, prosecutors introduced their next witness: Deborah Tarasoff, an accounts payable supervisor at the Trump Organization.

Emails show McConney forwarded Cohen's first invoice to Tarasoff in February 2017 and instructed her: "Please pay from the Trust. Post to legal expenses. Put 'retainer for the months of January and February 2017' in the description."

Prosecutors have said McConney did this with all of Cohen's invoices, and Tarasoff recorded each as a legal expense. She then prepared the checks that were used to pay Cohen.

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Jury shown checks to Cohen signed by Trump and his sons

Tarasoff, who said she began working for the Trump Organization in 2000, described how invoices are handled at the company and her role in the process.

"I get approved bills. I enter them into the system, and I cut the checks. And mail them out," she said, noting that she does not have decision-making authority over what invoices get approved and generally follows others' instructions. 

Tarasoff said that various Trump Organization executives first approve invoices, depending on the amount. She said that beginning in 2015, Allen Weisselberg, the CFO, could only sign off on invoices below $10,000. If the invoice was approved, Tarasoff would then cut the check, along with a backup copy, and bring it to the appropriate executive for their signature. 

Only Trump could sign checks drawing upon his personal account. She said that is still the case today. Tarasoff also said Trump would sometimes decline to sign, sending the check back to her with "Void" written in black Sharpie along the back.

Beginning in February 2017, Cohen sent invoices seeking his $35,000 monthly payments. Cohen's first two checks, representing three monthly payments, came from the account for Trump's trust, which did not require his signature. The first was signed by Eric Trump and Allen Weisselberg, both of whom were trustees. Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr., also a trustee, signed the second check.

The remaining nine monthly payments came from Trump's personal account. Those checks required Trump's signature.

"We would send them to the White House for him to sign," Tarasoff said, adding they were shipped via FedEx. 

The jury was shown checks to Cohen signed by Trump while he was president, as well as the checks signed by his sons on behalf of Trump's trust. Trump's signature was written in his trademark Sharpie.

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Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at [email protected] or [email protected]

Here is what Stormy Daniels testified happened between her and Donald Trump

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Porn performer Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday in the hush money case against former President Trump, who looked on as she detailed their alleged sexual encounter and the payment she got to keep it quiet.

Prosecutors allege Trump paid Daniels to keep quiet about the allegations as he ran for president in 2016. Her testimony aired them very publicly as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee seeks to win the White House again.

Trump denies having sex with Daniels , and his lawyers unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial midway through her testimony.

It was a major spectacle in the first criminal trial of a former American president, now in its third week of testimony in Manhattan.

Here are some takeaways from Daniels’ testimony:

Who is Stormy Daniels?

The case centers on a $130,000 payment to Daniels from Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Prosecutors say it was part of a scheme to illegally influence the campaign by burying negative stories about him.

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His lawyers have sought to show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family — not his campaign — by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told jurors that she started exotic dancing in high school and appearing in adult films at age 23, eventually moving to direct more than 150 films and winning a roster of porn industry awards.

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Meeting Trump

Daniels testified she first met and chatted with Trump at a 2006 Lake Tahoe celebrity golf outing where her studio was a sponsor.

He referred to her as “the smart one” and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner, she said. Daniels testified that she accepted Trump’s invitation because she wanted to avoid dinner with her co-workers and thought it might help her career. Trump had his bodyguard get her number, she said.

When they met up later in his penthouse, she appreciated that he seemed interested in the business aspects of the industry rather than the “sexy stuff.” He also suggested putting her on his TV show, “The Apprentice,” a possibility she hoped could help establish her as a writer and director.

She left to use the bathroom and was startled to find Trump in his underwear when she returned, she said. She didn’t feel physically or verbally threatened but realized that he was “bigger and blocking the way,” she testified.

“The next thing I know was: I was on the bed,” and they were having sex, Daniels recalled. The encounter was brief but left her “shaking,” she said. “I just wanted to leave,” she testified.

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Payments for silence

Daniels was asked if Trump ever told her to keep things between them confidential, and said, “Absolutely not.” She said she learned in 2011 that a magazine had learned the story of their encounter, and she agreed to do an interview for $15,000 to make money and “control the narrative.” The story never ran.

In 2016, when Trump was running for president, Daniels said she authorized her manager to shop the story around but did not initially receive interest from news outlets. She said that changed in October with the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women sexually without asking permission . She said she learned that Cohen wanted to buy her silence.

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Mistrial push

Midway through her testimony, Trump’s lawyers moved for a mistrial.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued that Daniels’ testimony about the alleged encounter and other meetings with him had “nothing to do with this case,” and would unfairly prejudice the jury.

The judge rejected it, and he faulted defense attorneys for not raising more of their objections while she was testifying.

Before Daniels took the stand, Trump’s lawyers had tried to stop her from testifying about the encounter’s details, saying it was irrelevant in “a case about books and records.”

Prosecutors countered that Daniels’ testimony gets at what Trump was trying to hide and they were “very mindful” not to draw too much graphic detail. Before Daniels took the stand, they told the judge the testimony would be “really basic,” and would not “involve any details of genitalia.”

While the judge didn’t side with Trump’s lawyers, he acknowledged that some details were excessive. The objections could potentially be used by Trump’s lawyers if he is convicted and they file an appeal.

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Cross-examination

Trump’s lawyers tried to attack Daniels’ credibility, suggesting she was motivated by money and that her account has shifted over the years.

“Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels at one point. Daniels acknowledged she did.

“And you want him to go to jail?” the lawyer asked.

“I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels said. Pressed again whether that meant going to jail, she said: “If he’s convicted.”

The defense pressed Daniels on the fact that she owes Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees stemming from an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit, and on a 2022 tweet in which she said she “will go to jail before I pay a penny.” Daniels dug in at times in the face of pointed questions, forcefully denying the idea that she had tried to extort money from Trump.

Trump whispered frequently to his attorney during Daniels’ testimony, and his expression seemed to be pained at one point as she recounted details about the dinner she says they shared. He shook his head and appeared to say something under his breath as Daniels testified that Trump told her he didn’t sleep in the same room as his wife.

On the way out of the courthouse, Trump called it “a very revealing day.” He didn’t address Daniels’ testimony explicitly but claimed the prosecutors’ case was “totally falling apart.”

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Jarring split screen

Trump’s appearance in court Tuesday, like all other days he’s stuck in the courtroom, means he can’t be out on the campaign trail as he runs for president a third time. It’s a frequent source of his complaints, but Daniels’ testimony in particular might underscore how much of a distraction the trial is from the business of running for president.

While Trump was stuck in a Manhattan courthouse away from voters and unable to speak for much of the day, President Biden was attending a Holocaust remembrance ceremony and condemning antisemitism .

It’s an issue Trump has sought to use against Biden in the campaign by seizing on the protests at college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war .

Associated Press writer Price reported from New York, Whitehurst from Washington. AP writers Michael Sisak, Jennifer Peltz, Jake Offenhartz and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this story.

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Silk pajamas, spanking and questions about STDs: Stormy Daniels details sexual encounter with Trump

Adult film actor Stormy Daniels took the witness stand at Donald Trump 's New York criminal trial Tuesday, testifying under oath about the sexual encounter she says she had with him in 2006 and the $130,000 deal for her silence that was struck during the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign.

In a remarkable day of testimony with the former president sitting roughly 10 feet away from her, Daniels recounted the tryst in detail. She also talked about Trump's supposed efforts to get her on his TV show and her decision to come forward with her story, as well as the payoff and the fallout from doing so.

During cross-examination, which at times became heated, Daniels tangled with one of Trump’s attorneys, Susan Necheles, who accused her of making up a series of false claims to "extort" Trump, then a presidential candidate.

Trump’s lawyers also argued that some of Daniels’ account of the 2006 encounter “was unduly and inappropriately prejudicial.” They then requested a mistrial.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge that Daniels’ unfair claims included her testimony that Trump didn’t use a condom and that she thinks she “blacked out” for a part of it.

“There’s no way to unring the bell, in our view,” Blanche said during a dramatic exchange with prosecutors.

Judge Juan Merchan shot down the mistrial motion but acknowledged that "there were things that would have been better left unsaid,” adding that he would strike some of Daniels' testimony from the record.

Court isn’t in session Wednesday. Cross-examination of Daniels will resume Thursday morning.

Trump is headed to Florida on Tuesday evening, with plans to spend Wednesday at Mar-a-Lago, campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Daniels testified that she first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in July 2006. Describing their first meeting as a "very brief encounter" on a golf course, Daniels said she was 27 and remembered Trump being as old as her father — around 60.

The jury — which appeared focused intently on Daniels and her testimony — was shown a picture of them together from that trip.

Daniels said that they later ran into each other at the club and that a man she later learned was Trump's bodyguard told her Trump wanted to have dinner with her. She said she replied, "No, with an expletive in front."

She did, however, get the bodyguard's number, and she said that later that day her publicist convinced her she should accept the invitation, telling her: “It’ll make a great story. He’s a business guy. Like, what could possibly go wrong?”

She said she went up to Trump's penthouse hotel suite and was told they'd be going to dinner at one of the restaurants downstairs. When she entered the room, which she described as "three times the size of my apartment," he was wearing "silk or satin" pajamas, she said. She said she quipped, “Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” and asked him to change, which he did.

They then sat at a dining table in the suite, where, she said, Trump asked her numerous questions about her adult film writing and directing. He then asked her about sexually transmitted diseases, and she said she was tested constantly and "I've never had a bad test."

She said that she grew frustrated with him because he kept cutting off her answers and that when he pulled out a magazine with him on the cover, she said, "Someone should spank you with that." She said she then rolled it up and "swatted" him with it. While jurors mostly appeared poker-faced through her testimony, one began rubbing her face and appeared to be holding back laughter.

After that, she said, Trump was "much more polite" and suggested she should come on his TV show, "The Apprentice." Daniels testified that "he said, 'You remind me of my daughter,'" and that appearing on the show would demonstrate she shouldn't be underestimated.

In all, they chatted for about two hours, Daniels said. She said that she went to the bathroom and that when she walked out, Trump was lying on the bed "in boxer shorts and T-shirt." She said she was "startled, like a jump scare. Wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing.”

She said Trump told her, "I thought you were serious about what you wanted." She said she felt "there was an imbalance of power, for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way, but I was not threatened either verbally or physically.” Asked in court whether she ended up having sex with him on the bed, she said, "Yes."

She described the sex as brief and said Trump told her “it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch.” She said he hadn’t used a condom and hadn't expressed any concern about his wife’s finding out what had happened. She said he also didn’t give her his phone number.

Trump's bodyguard reached out to her the next day to invite her to meet Trump at a bar in her hotel, she said. When she got there, she said, he was with then-Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Trump left about 10 minutes later but continued to call her well after the encounter, she said, "with an update — or a non-update if he didn’t have one — for ‘Apprentice.’”

"He always called me honey bunch," she said.

She said they saw each other again in January 2007, when he invited her to the launch of his Trump vodka brand. While she was there, she said, he introduced her to his friend "Karen," who she later learned was Karen McDougal , a former Playboy model who said she was having a monthslong affair with Trump during that period. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified earlier in the trial that he paid McDougal $150,000 to keep her quiet about the claim during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied both Daniels' and McDougal's claims.

Daniels said Trump also invited her to Trump Tower around that time and assured her, "I'm still working on the ‘Apprentice’ thing."

She said they last saw each other in the summer of 2007, when he invited her to see him at a bungalow he was staying at in Los Angeles. She said that he "kept trying to make sexual advances" but that she shot him down. "I told him I was on my period," she said. He said he later called her and told her he hadn't been able to get her on his show.

Payments made to Daniels by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen at the end of the 2016 campaign are at the heart of the case, the first criminal trial of a former president. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in return for her keeping quiet about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump.

Daniels said Tuesday that Gina Rodriguez, her manager, spoke to her about going public with her story for money in 2015 after Trump announced he was running for president. Rodriguez didn’t have much success shopping the story until after the release in October 2016 of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump was recorded in 2005 bragging that he could grope women without their consent.

She said that Rodriguez then told her that Trump and Cohen were "interested in paying" for the story and that she agreed, because it meant the story — which her husband didn’t know about — wouldn’t become public. "I didn't care about the amounts. It was just, 'Get it done,'" she said.

Prosecutors say Trump reimbursed Cohen the money in payments that were falsely described as legal expenses. They have charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Daniels' deal with Cohen was revealed in a January 2018 story in The Wall Street Journal. Asked about the impact the story had on her life, Daniels said, "Chaos."

“My husband asking questions, my friends asking questions,” she said, with people showing up on her front lawn.

She said that Cohen started to talk about her allegations publicly but that she couldn’t because of the NDA and the $1 million penalty it included if she violated it. She said she later hired lawyer Michael Avenatti "so that I could stand up for myself."

He helped her get out of the NDA but also filed an unsuccessful defamation suit against Trump on her behalf and against her wishes, she said. Daniels lost the case and was ordered to pay Trump's legal fees . She eventually fired Avenatti, who was convicted of several crimes, including stealing from Daniels .

Daniels had vowed on Twitter, now X, never to pay the legal fees, which she acknowledged on cross-examination totaled over $660,000.

"You said, 'I will go to jail before I pay a penny'?" Necheles asked Daniels. "Correct," she responded.

Daniels also acknowledged that she hates Trump and has called him mean names online, including having referred to him as an "orange turd," but she said Trump, who has repeatedly referred to her as "horseface," made fun of her first.

Necheles also pressed Daniels about earlier accounts of her story. Daniels testified she agreed to do an interview with In Touch magazine in 2011 after it told her it was writing about the alleged encounter with Trump. Daniels said that it had agreed to pay her $15,000 for the interview but that the deal was scrapped after Cohen got the story killed. She said she was threatened weeks later by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot who told her to "leave Trump alone."

Necheles repeatedly suggested the parking lot incident was made up, which Daniels disputed. Daniels said that she was frightened by the encounter and that she stayed quiet until Trump declared his candidacy for president, at which point she gave her manager the green light to shop her story around.

“You weren’t really scared, were you?” Necheles said.

“I was terrified, but the ballgame changed,” Daniels replied, implying that by telling her story when Trump was a candidate, she felt she could ensure her safety.

“You were looking to extort money from President Trump, right?” Necheles said.

“False,” Daniels replied.

Before Daniels first took the stand, Merchan told prosecutors she could testify that she and Trump had sexual relations but that she should leave details out. Once she was on the stand, Daniels often elaborated on her claims without being asked, and Merchan repeatedly told her just to answer the questions that were posed to her.

When Blanche made his mistrial motion, Merchan also faulted the lawyers for not having spoken up during her testimony, saying he was surprised there weren't more objections.

"I think that I signaled to you and to the prosecution that we were going into way too much detail,” Merchan said.

Trump, whom Merchan has fined for repeatedly violating a gag order by attacking Daniels and Cohen, took to his social media platform before Tuesday's court proceedings to complain he had "just recently been told who the witness is today."

“This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare. No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way,” he wrote in a post that was taken down a short time later.

The Truth Social post went up shortly before The Associated Press first reported that Daniels was expected to testify. It's unclear when Trump and his lawyers were told she'd be testifying — prosecutors have typically not been telling them who would take the stand until the day before, citing Trump's record of witness commentary.

That Daniels would testify wasn’t a surprise, however. Trump’s legal team had argued unsuccessfully that she should be barred from taking the stand, a request Merchan rejected before the trial started. Cohen is also expected to testify.

Before Daniels, prosecutors called a longtime publishing executive to authenticate and read excerpts from some of Trump’s books.

Sally Franklin, an executive at Penguin Random House, read one from "Trump: Think Like a Billionaire" that talked about how closely Trump tracks his money — which prosecutors are likely to use to show he was well aware of what he was paying Cohen back for.

"I always sign my checks so I know where my money is going,” he said in the excerpt.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Gary Grumbach produces and reports for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C.

Jillian Frankel is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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Stormy Daniels tells court she ‘hates’ Trump and wants him ‘held accountable’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest report and key takeaways below:

• Stormy Daniels describes being ‘startled’ by sexual encounter
• Satin pajamas and mistrial denied: key takeaways, day 13
• 2d ago Closing summary
• 2d ago Judge indefinitely postpones Trump's classified documents trial date
• 2d ago Trump says today was a 'very revealing day'
• 2d ago Court adjourned for the day
• 2d ago Daniels asked about tweet calling Trump an 'orange turd'
• 3d ago 'I want him to be held accountable': Daniels says she 'hates' Trump
• 3d ago Defense begins cross-examination of Daniels
• 3d ago Daniels testifies her life became 'chaos' after Wall Street Journal hush-money story
• 3d ago Stormy Daniels back on the stand
• 3d ago Judge denies defense motion for a mistrial
• 3d ago Trump attorney moves for mistrial based on Daniels' testimony
• 3d ago Daniels testifies she 'didn't care' about $130,000 hush-money amount
• 3d ago Daniels describes meeting with Trump at Trump Tower
• 3d ago Judge warns prosecutors to keep Daniels' questioning relevant to the case
• 3d ago Stormy Daniels says Trump did not ask her to keep their sexual encounter a secret
• 3d ago Daniels says Trump told her 'let’s get together again, honeybunch' after sexual encounter
• 3d ago 'I blacked out': Daniels describes 'brief' sexual encounter with Trump
• 3d ago 'Like a jump scare': Daniels testifies she was 'startled' to see Trump in boxer shorts in bed
• 3d ago Daniels testifies Trump told her she reminded him of his daughter Ivanka
• 3d ago Daniels testifies Trump said he and Melania 'don't sleep in the same room'
• 3d ago Daniels testifies about meeting Trump at celebrity golf tournament
• 3d ago Daniels identifies Trump in courtroom
• 3d ago Daniels testifies about her personal biography as prosecutors paint sympathetic portrait
• 3d ago Stormy Daniels called to the stand
• 3d ago First witness called
• 3d ago Judge allows prosecutors to call Stormy Daniels as witness
• 3d ago Trump attorney asks judge to prohibit Stormy Daniels from testifying about alleged 'sexual act'
• 3d ago Stormy Daniels ‘likely’ called as witness today, her lawyer tells AP
• 3d ago Three key takeaways from Monday
• 3d ago Trump complains about length of trial: 'I thought they would be finished today'
• 3d ago Case to resume after judge fines Trump and threatens jail time for gag order violations

'I want him to be held accountable': Daniels says she 'hates' Trump

Then came Trump attorney Susan Necheles’ questions on Stormy Daniels’ view on Trump.

“Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?” Yes.

“And you want him to go to jail?”

I want him to be held accountable.

“Part of the reason you hate him is because he won a legal case against you, and you owe him today, over half a million dollars, right?” Necheles said.

“He didn’t win the case – he won attorneys fees.

“So you agree with me, he won the case and he was awarded over half a million dollars in legal fees?” Correct.

Closing summary

Donald Trump ’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, the adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal. Daniels testified for nearly four hours today, and is expected to return to the stand on Thursday.

Here’s a recap of what happened today:

Daniels testified that she and Trump had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed. Prosecutors allege that in 2015, Trump, his then lawyer Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker plotted to bury stories that could thwart his Republican presidential bid. Cohen allegedly shuttled a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, to keep her from going public about her claimed sexual liaison with Trump.

Daniels said she had met Trump at a celebrity golf match in Lake Tahoe, and that she had gone to his hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there. Per instructions from Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, she arrived at his penthouse to find Trump wearing “silk or satin pyjamas” and she asked him to change.

Daniels said Trump repeatedly grilled Daniels on her time in the adult industry, including: “What about testing? Do you worry about STDs?” He asked whether she had been tested. She later testified that Trump did not use a condom during their sexual encounter.

Daniels said there was a brief discussion of Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, during which he said they slept in separate rooms. She also said he compared her to his daughter, Ivanka Trump: “You remind me of my daughter. She is smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well.” She said that during their conversation, Trump dangled the idea of putting her on his TV show The Apprentice.

Daniels said she used the restroom and when she exited, she saw Trump on the bed in his boxers and a T-shirt. “I just thought: oh my God, what did I misread to get here?” She said, comparing it to a “jump scare”. “The intention is pretty clear if someone’s stripped down to their underwear and on the bed.” She said it suddenly felt like the room was spinning, like blood was draining from her hands and feet.

Daniels said that she tried to make a joke and leave, but Trump stood up between her and the door. She testified that Trump told her “I thought you were serious about what you wanted, if you want to get out of that trailer park.”

Daniels said she “blacked out” during her “brief” sexual encounter with Trump. “ I was not drunk I was not drugged … I just don’t remember,” she told the jury. She said she “was staring up at the ceiling and didn’t know how I got there”. She testified that she remembered her hands were “shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed” afterwards, and that Trump told her: “Let’s get together again, honey bunch!”

After a lunch break, Trump’s team demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments. “There’s no way to unring that bell, in our view,” defense lawyer Todd Blanche said. “Aside from pure embarrassment,” Blanche told Merchan, these details did nothing but “inflame the jury”. The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony.

Daniels said that in 2011, a man approached her at a Las Vegas car park and threatened her against coming forward . Her former attorney, Michael Avenatti , publicized a sketch of the man, and then filed a defamation suit after Trump denied involvement. Daniels said she thought a defamation claim was “risky” and “not worth it”, but that Avenatti filed it without her permission. The case was thrown out, in Trump’s favor.

Under cross examination, Daniels acknowledged that she “hates” Trump. “ I want him to be held accountable,” she told the jury. Daniels also admitted she has chosen not to pay about $560,000 in legal fees that she owes to Trump after she filed and lost a defamation suit against him.

The jury heard from another witness in the morning: Sally Franklin , an executive at Penguin Random House. The prosecution asked her to read excerpts from Trump’s books including Trump: How to Get Rich and Trump: Think Like a Billionaire.

Judge indefinitely postpones Trump's classified documents trial date

The US district judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump ’s trial date in Florida in the case where the former president is charged with retaining national security documents.

From Politico’s Kyle Cheney:

BREAKING: Judge CANNON has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump's trial date in Florida. It may be months before we know the new schedule. https://t.co/SScVNc0KAD pic.twitter.com/xnmlCjK92X — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) May 7, 2024

Trump says today was a 'very revealing day'

Donald Trump, speaking to the media after court adjourned for the day, described today’s court proceedings as a “very big day”.

Trump, standing next to his attorney Todd Blanche, said:

So this was a very big day, a very revealing day as you see their case is totally falling apart. They have nothing on books and records and even something that should bear very little relationship to the case. It’s just a disaster for the DA, the Soros-backed disaster. This whole case is a disaster.

Court adjourned for the day

Stormy Daniels has left the stand for the day and walked out of the room. Trump attorney Susan Necheles’ cross of Daniels will resume on Thursday.

Trump has left the courtroom.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking about the alleged 2011 threat to keep quiet about the former president , once again to insist that it didn’t actually happen.

So you decided in 2016, well, I’m going to sell my story, you weren’t afraid?

Stormy Daniels told Necheles that she was “very different” and more brave, in 2016 than in 2011.

Necheles pressed on with her suggestion that Daniels was trying to shake down Trump.

You were looking to extort money from President Trump, right?

“False”, Daniels said. “Well, that’s what you did, right?” “False!”

Donald Trump has returned to court following a brief break. His son, Eric, has sat back down in the front row, once again alongside Alina Habba .

Stormy Daniels has returned to the stand.

During the break, Trump was asked how today’s proceedings were going. “Very well”, he replied, per pool.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is grilling Stormy Daniels on why she didn’t come forward with the sex claim for 10 years.

Daniels shot back that she told multiple people – including friends – and had effectively told the story during a radio show interview around 2007.

Necheles asked if she thought that Michael Cohen had sent a man to threaten Daniels in 2011; Daniels previously believed that Cohen was responsible for the threat.

Daniels earlier told the jury about being approached by a man in the parking lot of a shopping center in Las Vegas in June 2011 who she said “threatened me not to continue to tell my story”.

The prosecution asked: “But now you and Michael Cohen are buddies, right?” Daniels replied:

I wouldn’t say buddies.

But you’ve been on his podcast a couple of times? “For him to apologize.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about whether she considered getting high-profile women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred to represent her in 2011.

You told Gloria Allred that you did not have sex with President Trump, didn’t you?

Daniels denied this. “I told her I did.”

Necheles’ line of questioning stems from Daniels’ book, Full Disclosure, where she describes speaking with Allred on the phone – but not telling her about sex with Trump. Daniels said:

I did not tell her all these sex details, I did not trust her.

“You’re making this up as you sit there, right?” Necheles pressed. “No.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles returns to money.

You’ve been making money by claiming to have had sex with Donald J Trump, for more than a decade?

“I’ve been making money telling my story [about] what happened,” replied an increasingly irked Daniels.

“It has made you a lot of money?” Daniels shot back:

It has also cost me a lot of money.

Daniels asked about tweet calling Trump an 'orange turd'

On cross, Trump attorney Susan Necheles is doggedly trying to convey that Stormy Daniels’ presence in court is a financially motivated personal vendetta.

Not only does Daniels hate Donald Trump , but she doesn’t want to pay him money owed to him.

Necheles also pointed to one of Daniels’ tweets, where she compares him to an orange excrement.

I don't owe him shit and I'll never give that orange turd a dime 😂 — Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) November 10, 2022

Why did she make fun of his appearance, Necheles asked?

Because he made fun of me first.

So, Necheles asked, one of you started it, but both continued the feud?

“The prosecutors began their direct testimony today by asking you why you started acting in pornography, right?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles said.

“They asked me why? I don’t think they asked me why,” answered Stormy Daniels, who seemed irked.

Necheles asked about why she got into the industry, asking:

It’s that simple: “You want[ed] more money?

Daniels said:

Don’t we all want more money in our jobs?

Necheles grilled Daniels on whether money was her main motive with things.

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What consumers should know as Philips agrees to $1.1 billion CPAP settlement

Bill Chappell

The medical device maker Philips has agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement to address claims brought by thousands of people with sleep apnea who say they were injured by the company's CPAP machines. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images hide caption

The medical device maker Philips has agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement to address claims brought by thousands of people with sleep apnea who say they were injured by the company's CPAP machines.

Millions of CPAP sleep apnea machines made by the medical device maker Philips and a subsidiary were found to have a dangerous problem, triggering consumer lawsuits and a massive recall in 2021. Now, Philips has reached a $1.1 billion deal to settle claims from people who say they were injured. A portion of the funds will also go toward medical monitoring.

Some 15 million Philips CPAP and ventilator machines worldwide are affected by the Class I recall, a designation reflecting "a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, the products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," according to the Food and Drug Administration .

The devices were sold between 2008 and 2021 in the U.S. under the Philips Respironics brand, according to Philips' recall notice .

"Since April 2021, the FDA has received more than 116,000 MDRs [Medical Device Reports], including 561 reports of death," that were either reported or suspected to be related to problems with insulating foam in the Philips devices, the FDA said earlier this year.

"Philips and Philips Respironics do not admit any fault or liability, or that any injuries were caused by Respironics' devices," the company said as it announced the new settlement agreement.

Here's an overview of the recall and where consumers stand:

Settlement money will likely flow next year

The $1.1 billion deal — which includes $25 million for medical monitoring — stems from mediation by retired magistrate judge Diane M. Welsh, but it's not yet final, as the agreement must be filed with a federal court in Pennsylvania — a main state where the machines were produced.

Philips announced the new settlement on Monday, along with its first-quarter financial results. The Dutch-based corporation then saw its stock price vault to a likely one-day record gain, as investors welcomed news that the recall issue seems to have been resolved at a lower cost than analysts predicted.

"The remediation of the sleep therapy devices for patients is almost complete," said Roy Jakobs, CEO of parent company Royal Philips, in a statement. He added, "We do regret the concern that patients may have experienced."

"We are pleased to have reached a resolution" of personal injury claims, the plaintiffs' co-lead attorneys, Sandra L. Duggan; Kelly K. Iverson; Christopher A. Seeger; and Steven A. Schwartz, said in a joint statement to NPR.

The money will go to "users of the now-recalled CPAP and other respiratory devices who suffer from significant physical injuries," and to fund research into treating their injuries, the attorneys said. Philips says some 58,000 people have filed claims or registered for the settlement.

As for when consumers could see money from the deal, Philips said it expects to make the payments in 2025.

This isn't the only settlement

News of the personal injury settlement comes a week after Philips settled a class-action lawsuit over economic damages from the recall.

That settlement is worth a minimum of $613.3 million, including $94.4 million in attorneys' fees. It offers reimbursement to users and "payers" — e.g., insurance companies — for recalled machines they had bought or leased.

The deal was approved last Thursday by senior U.S. district judge Joy Flowers Conti in the federal Court in western Philadelphia. The judge had previously appointed Welsh to serve as mediator in the injury-related class-action suit.

Philips says it expects to pay that money out this year.

What can consumers do?

Under the financial-loss settlement, users are entitled to a $100 award if they return their recalled device by Aug. 9, 2024 — the claim deadline.

People who suspect they own or use one of the affected devices should act soon to verify that if they haven't already, the FDA says . The agency notes that Philips' recall page offers ways to check serial numbers and register a product.

A specially dedicated website is accepting claims for the financial-loss settlement , and it notes that taking part in that deal "does not affect or release any claims for personal injuries or medical monitoring relief."

Under the financial-loss settlement, users are also eligible for a payment for each recalled device they purchased, leased, or rented — and if they paid out of their own pocket to replace a recalled machine, they could be entitled to a device replacement award, according to the website.

The arrangement includes a prepaid shipping label, although the administrators also warn users to consult with their doctor before returning a device they're still using.

A similar claims process will likely emerge for the injury-related deal once its terms are finalized.

Defective machines can send particles, VOCs into airways

The recall was triggered by thousands of health complaints from CPAP users. An investigation found that a polyester-based polyurethane foam built into the devices to dampen sound and vibration also had a risk of breaking down — especially when used in warm and humid conditions.

"If the foam breaks down, black pieces of foam, or certain chemicals that are not visible, could be breathed in or swallowed by the person using the device," the FDA said.

The agency said in a letter to Philips in 2022 that the foam also "may degrade and/or emit harmful chemicals, potentially resulting in toxic and carcinogenic effects and other significant harms to device users," listing formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

"Philips has acknowledged that, in a worst-case scenario, exposure to VOCs as a class may cause possible toxic and carcinogenic effects, as well as irritation of the respiratory tract, eyes, nose, and skin, nausea or vomiting, hypersensitivity reactions, dizziness, and headache," the FDA said.

Resulting problems "could potentially result in serious injury and may require medical intervention to prevent permanent injury," the agency said.

The plan to fix machines with the problem call for replacing the polyester-based foam with one that uses silicone as its base .

What is the current status of Philips CPAP machines?

U.S. sales of Philips' popular DreamStation and other respiratory units are currently on hold; the company says it plans to resume selling the devices once it has satisfied the terms of a consent decree with the U.S. government .

Philips also says it will continue to service units that are still in use, including by providing replacement parts.

Shots - Health News

You snooze, you lose: how insurers dodge the costs of popular sleep apnea devices.

Lawsuits against the company contend that Philips designed its CPAP machine poorly and put it on the market without appropriate warnings.

The FDA accuses Philips of not taking appropriate action about the dangers of the degrading foam in its CPAP and ventilator devices despite learning about the risk as early as 2015. That year, the FDA said in a letter to the company, a Philips subsidiary began a preventative procedure because of complaints about the foam breaking down. The agency says it learned about the matter when the FDA inspected a manufacturing plant in Murrysville, Pa., in 2021.

When asked about the 2015 revelation, a company representative said the only documentation of the issue was a single email, with other communications handled over the phone, the FDA said in its letter.

What is sleep apnea, and how much do CPAP machines cost?

Sleep apnea is a disorder that prevents people from getting enough oxygen while they're sleeping — it's often characterized by long pauses in breathing, and loud snoring. People diagnosed with the disorder rely on continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machines to keep their airways open and help them stay asleep.

Last June, the White House said President Biden was using a CPAP machine to help with sleep apnea.

Prices for many units range from around $500 to more than $1300.

"The average cost of a CPAP machine is about $800 among those we reviewed," the National Council on Aging said last year.

The recall also covers some models of Philips' more complicated BiPAP ventilators, which facilitate both inhalation and exhalation and routinely cost hundreds of dollars more.

Many apnea and ventilator devices' users also face additional costs, from replacements parts and upkeep to buying an additional machine for travel.