Each quarter, the Center for Professional & Leadership Development publishes a Tip of the Week to help students navigate the changing waters of career development and job search. All tips are published on the CPLD blog. This quarter, the Tips of the Week will focus on writing attention-grabbing cover letters.
Why write a cover
letter?
As you have discovered, attorneys write a lot. We write briefs, we write memos, we write
draft opinions and orders, we write contracts, and more. Legal Analysis, Research and Writing prepares
law students to write exactly these kinds of documents.
But attorneys also write letters and emails – to clients, to
supervisors, to employees. You will
write letters to engage a new client and letters to terminate client-attorney
relationships at the end of a matter.
You will write letters informing clients about recent developments in
their cases. You will write executive
summaries to explain why you used that specific language in your contract. You may write articles for the newspaper or
an online blog. You may write
legislation, or you may write your biography when you run for office. In short, you will do a lot of non-legal
writing. Your cover letter is the first
opportunity for you to demonstrate that you can write for a non-legal audience,
and that is a skill that employers are looking for.
Cover Letter as Opening
Statement
The best legal cover letters are easily compared to the best
opening statements. They are clean and
professional. They grab your attention
at the beginning, focus on two or three key themes, and support those themes
with evidence. They are long enough to
cover everything, but short enough to keep the reader’s attention. They end with a call for action and a sincere
thank you for your consideration.
This quarter, we will discuss the parts of your cover letter,
from the top edge to the bottom edge, and give tips for how to improve
everything in between.
Next week: Headers, Addresses & Greetings
