Right now your CV might be almost empty, and that can feel discouraging, like everyone else already has a full page and you’re starting from nothing. Here’s the reframe: a strong law CV isn’t written in a panic in final year; it’s built, quietly, year by year, from an empty page. Every internship, skill and activity is a brick. If you understand what to add each year and keep it coherent, you’ll reach placement season with a genuinely impressive CV, without ever having crammed. Here’s the year-by-year plan.
Quick answer
Build your law CV gradually: in early years, add your first exposure internship, core skills and one activity; in middle years, add stronger, more varied internships, a moot, and a forming direction; in later years, add targeted, high-quality internships and a coherent specialisation story. Keep every entry specific and evidence-based, update it while experiences are fresh, and shape it so it tells one clear story by final year. A CV is built brick by brick, not written overnight.
The principle: specific bricks, one story
Two ideas run through the whole five years.
- First, every entry should be a specific brick: an evidence-based line about what you actually did (“researched X for Y”), not a vague label. (YLCC CV guides go deep on this.)
- Second, the bricks should build one coherent story; by final year, your CV should point somewhere, showing a direction rather than a random pile of activities. Keep those two principles in mind, and each year’s additions accumulate into something strong.
Year by year: what to add
- First year: Your first exposure internship (a specific bullet, however modest), core skills, and one activity you tried. The page starts filling; small is fine.
- Second year: One or two more substantive, varied internships; a moot or serious society role; sharper skills. Your CV starts showing range.
- Third year: Targeted internships in your leaning direction; the CV starts telling a story that points somewhere. Trim anything that no longer fits the picture.
- Fourth year: High-quality, relevant internships; deepened specialisation; polish the whole CV into a coherent, impressive one-pager.
- Final year: Any last targeted experience or writing sample, final polish, and a CV that clearly reflects the lawyer you’re becoming.
Keep it fresh and coherent
Two habits make this painless.
- Update as you go: right after each internship or activity, write the specific bullets while the details are fresh; reconstructing them a year later gives you vague, weak lines.
- Curate, don’t just accumulate: as your direction forms, keep the entries that support your story and condense or drop the ones that don’t. By your final year you want a sharp, coherent one-pager, not a five-year junk drawer of everything you ever did.
YLCC ACTION STEP: Start a “living CV” document today, even if it’s nearly empty. After every internship, moot or activity, add specific, evidence-based bullets immediately. Doing this for five years means your final-year CV writes itself, and you’ll never face that panicked “what did I even do?” scramble.
PLEASE DON’T DO THIS: Please don’t leave your CV untouched until your final year and then try to reconstruct five years from memory, you’ll lose the specifics that make bullets strong, and it’ll show. And please don’t let it become a two-page pile of everything; curate toward one coherent story. Build deliberately, prune regularly.
If this is you…
- Empty CV, early years: Perfect time to start the living-CV habit. Your first specific bullet from a modest internship is a real beginning; the page fills faster than you expect.
- Later years, messy CV: Do a curation pass now; keep the strong, story-supporting entries, sharpen the bullets, and trim the rest. It’s not too late to shape a coherent profile.
FAQs
- How do I build a law CV from nothing? Gradually, add your first exposure internship, then stronger and more targeted ones each year, keeping every entry specific and building toward one coherent story.
- When should I start my CV? From the first year, as a living document, you update after every internship or activity. Early habits make final-year CVs effortless.
- What goes on a first-year law CV? Your first exposure internship (as a specific bullet), core skills, and any activity you’ve done. Small and specific beats are empty or padded.
- How do I keep my CV coherent? Curate as your direction forms, keep story-supporting entries, sharpen bullets, and trim what no longer fits. Aim for a sharp one-pager by final year.
- What if I left my CV until late? Do a curation and reconstruction pass now, keeping strong entries and sharpening bullets. It’s recoverable, though updating as you go is far easier.
Thank you for reading!
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