5 Perfect Opening Lines for Your Cover Letter

How to Write an Amazing Cover Letter as a Lawyer or Legal Professional
 
Writing an amazing cover letter to a lawyer or legal professional is one of the best ways to get the attention of the hiring manager or legal recruiter. Depending on location, practice area and demand, you could be competing with up to 250 other applicants. Since a cover letter only gives you a few seconds to capture their attention, the first few opening lines should help you stand out. And what’s better than writing a compelling cover letter that uses the opening lines to show what sets you apart while also showing the law firm how you fulfill their needs? Sounds like a win-win!


Use Keywords from the Job Opening When You Write Your Amazing Cover Letter
 
The law firm needs someone who can fulfill a specific role, even if it's an associate attorney or entry-level legal professional. Before you write your cover letter, reread the job description. Find the keywords that you believe are most pertinent to the law firm’s needs and use those in well-constructed opening sentences that address how you fulfill their requirements with your relevant skills. This practice is particularly helpful if you’re applying with a placement company, BigLaw, or a legal department with a corporation who may use an applicant tracking system (ATS). An applicant tracking system scans your cover letter as well as your resume to locate keywords from the job opening inside of your documents. If you find them, and you meet other minimum criteria set, your cover letter and resume are forwarded to a human.
 
And what about keywords for law firms where humans read the cover letters received? It shows you paid attention to the job opening and understand the requirements. If you clearly explained how your education and experience directly fulfill their needs and your credentials look good, you could be more likely to receive a callback.

Referred by a Mutual Connection? Name Drop

If you learned about the law firm job opening from a mutual connection, it is appropriate to use their name in the opening of your cover letter. Depending on the law firm or corporation, they may have a system that rewards their employees for successful referrals. By mentioning the name of the mutual connection, you could be helping your friend or colleague. Even if there is no reward program, the name drop helps capture the attention of the hiring manager. If the mutual connection is a good employee, that could be enough to help you land an interview.

Of course, you should do more than mention the mutual connection. It would be best if you still highlighted keywords from the job opening and how your experience is relevant to the job opening. You must always be able to show that you are the best legal professional for the open position.

Include Your Current Job Title & Accomplishments as a Legal Professional

As an attorney or legal professional, it’s fine to include your current job title as well as your accomplishments when you write your amazing cover letter. For example, you can state that you’re a mid-level attorney who helped secure more than $10 million in damages for personal injury victims over the last seven years. You could state that you’re a NALA or NALP certified paralegal who volunteered for more than 300 hours with Habitat for Humanity during the previous 12 months. If you have multiple accomplishments, tailor what you choose to share based on the job opening. For example, if you're an attorney and you've worked in numerous areas of law, and you’ve received multiple awards, list the most recent award(s) for the areas that make the most sense for the job opening. You could also choose to list nominations, such as a nomination for SuperLawyer.

Another accomplishment that law firms and corporations may find impressive has to do with business growth. Did you contribute to the business or the revenue growth of your current or previous employer? Law firms will always be concerned about their bottom line. Showing in your cover letter that you, as an attorney, can help bring in business to the law firm can be very beneficial in landing an interview.

Show a Professional Level of Excitement

While the legal industry is known as one of the most conservative fields, it is acceptable to show a professional level of excitement that the law firm or corporation is hiring. It tells the law firm or corporation that you're motivated, and that it is likely that if they choose you, you'll stick around. When law firms and corporations select someone to fill a legal job opening, they make a substantial investment of money and resources. If the person they chose doesn’t work out, they have to start the hiring, vetting and training process all over again. They really do want to find and hire the right person the first time. And they want the right person to stick around. So, showing a professional level of excitement is acceptable.

Provided you're qualified, they'll be happy to interview you. They want team players who are happy and motivated to work for them.

Don’t be superficial and call the job prestigious or discuss the perks. The law firm or company already knows they exist. If you're an entry-level candidate, this only highlights your inexperience. Concentrate your focus on the things the law firm or the corporation has done in the community or recent news of how they’ve helped out. Make sure that you do your research. You can even mention how much you love what you do and how you would love to work with them.

Bring Up Their Recent Good Press

Do your research and look for recent good press on the law firm or corporation and bring it up in the opening lines of your cover letter. One of the best places to find this information is on their website. It may be located on their blog or news page. If you can't find it there, look for their company page on LinkedIn. Otherwise, you can look them up on Google and then switch to the "News" tab. Then, mention how their recent positive press inspired you to look for their legal job openings because you wanted to work with their law firm or corporation to help make a difference. Then, move on to talking about how your education and legal experience fulfills the specific requirements of their job opening.

Why Send a Generic Cover Letter When You Can Write an Amazing Cover Letter?

It doesn’t take much effort to write a fantastic cover letter, so why would you ever want to send a generic cover letter? A generic cover letter might be faster since you could copy and paste it, but it won't get any attention. A generic cover letter could also have errors if you miss changing the name of a hiring manager, a law firm, or even the name of the open legal position.