Top 12 Corporate Paralegal Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive field of corporate law, a sharp, well-shaped resume that spotlights core paralegal skills can lift you out of the pile. The following dives into a dozen capabilities corporate paralegals should feature to show readiness, rigor, and calm under pressure.

Corporate Paralegal Skills

1. LexisNexis
2. Westlaw
3. Document Review
4. Litigation Support
5. Contract Management
6. eDiscovery
7. PACER
8. CaseMap
9. Time Matters
10. Bluebook Citation
11. Corporate Governance
12. Compliance Tracking

1. LexisNexis

LexisNexis delivers legal, regulatory, and business intelligence that corporate paralegals lean on for research, due diligence, monitoring, and risk work. Deep databases, practical guidance, and analytical tools live under one roof.

Why It's Important

It puts comprehensive case law, statutes, regulations, news, and company information within quick reach, which speeds drafting, validates positions, and supports compliance.

How to Improve LexisNexis Skills

Grow sharper with deliberate practice:

1. Focused training: Take platform tutorials and short lessons; chase certifications when available to lock in search techniques and alerting.

2. Smart customization: Save frequent searches, set topic alerts, build folders, and tailor filters to your practice area so answers surface faster.

3. Use integrations: Lean on drafting add-ins such as Lexis for Microsoft Office to research, cite-check, and quote without leaving Word or Outlook.

4. Search discipline: Hone segment searching, connectors, and post-search filters; keep a personal playbook of queries that consistently deliver.

5. Stay current: Skim release notes and new-source announcements; tweak workflows when new features land.

How to Display LexisNexis Skills on Your Resume

2. Westlaw

Westlaw is a primary home for legal research and analysis—cases, statutes, regs, secondary sources, and practical materials—used daily by corporate legal teams.

Why It's Important

It enables fast, confident research with validation tools like KeyCite and, when available, advanced analytics through Westlaw Edge.

How to Improve Westlaw Skills

Sharper use, quicker answers:

1. Boolean mastery: Build precise queries; mix connectors and field restrictions to zero in on the right passages and headnotes.

2. KeyCite habits: Always verify authority status and citing references; track depth-of-treatment and history at a glance.

3. Custom alerts: Set alerts on statutes, topics, dockets, and key companies; let Westlaw bring changes to you.

4. Practice resources: Use corporate and M&A checklists, templates, and Drafting Assistant features to accelerate turnaround.

5. Ongoing training: Take quick courses and feature refreshers; bookmark new tools and incorporate them into your daily routine.

How to Display Westlaw Skills on Your Resume

3. Document Review

Document review in corporate practice means sorting, analyzing, and tagging contracts, emails, board materials, and other records for transactions, investigations, or disputes.

Why It's Important

It protects the company’s position by ensuring accuracy, surfacing risk, and mapping facts to law. Miss a thread and you can miss the story.

How to Improve Document Review Skills

Make volume manageable and results dependable:

1. Tech-first approach: Use review platforms with analytics, threading, deduplication, and TAR—Relativity, Logikcull, and similar tools sharpen speed and consistency.

2. Written protocols: Define scope, key terms, privilege rules, escalation paths, and QC sampling before you start.

3. Advanced search: Combine metadata filters, proximity connectors, and concept clustering to sift noise from signal.

4. Layered QC: Build first/second-level review with spot checks and metrics (precision/recall) to keep quality tight.

5. Team coordination: Use shared tags, brief stand-ups, and collaboration channels to keep everyone aligned on evolving issues.

How to Display Document Review Skills on Your Resume

4. Litigation Support

Litigation support spans eDiscovery coordination, evidence management, deposition prep, trial logistics, and the technical backbone that keeps massive matters tidy.

Why It's Important

Solid support translates into organized facts, defensible processes, and a court-ready record. Chaos, tamed.

How to Improve Litigation Support Skills

Tighten the machine:

1. Right tools: Employ eDiscovery platforms (e.g., Relativity), matter management systems (e.g., Clio), and trial prep utilities to standardize workflows.

2. File hygiene: Enforce naming conventions, version control, and centralized repositories; document everything.

3. Clear comms: Set response SLAs and channels (Teams, Slack); keep counsel, vendors, and IT on one page.

4. Security first: Apply least-privilege access, MFA, encryption, and breach drills; litigation data is a magnet.

5. Continual learning: Track rule changes, ESI trends, and platform updates; refresh playbooks after every matter.

How to Display Litigation Support Skills on Your Resume

5. Contract Management

Contract management covers drafting, negotiation, approvals, execution, storage, and obligation tracking. It’s the circulatory system of business deals.

Why It's Important

Tighter control reduces risk, shortens cycle time, and ensures the company actually gets the benefit of its bargains.

How to Improve Contract Management Skills

Make agreements flow:

1. Central repository: Keep a single, secure source of truth with role-based access and searchable metadata.

2. Templates and clause libraries: Standardize common paper; lock in fallback positions and playbooks for faster redlines.

3. CLM software: Consider tools with workflow automation, e-signature, obligation tracking, and analytics (e.g., Ironclad, Agiloft, DocuSign, ContractWorks).

4. Date vigilance: Automate reminders for renewals, notice windows, audits, and pricing adjustments.

5. Post-signature follow-through: Track deliverables, SLAs, compliance covenants, and most-favored terms; close the gap between ink and impact.

How to Display Contract Management Skills on Your Resume

6. eDiscovery

eDiscovery is the identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, and production of electronically stored information for litigation, investigations, or regulatory matters.

Why It's Important

Modern evidence is digital. Effective eDiscovery preserves defensibility, contains cost, and surfaces the facts that matter.

How to Improve eDiscovery Skills

Precision plus process:

1. Legal holds: Issue, track, and release holds with auditable confirmations; align with IT on preservation in email, chat, M365, Google Workspace, and cloud repositories.

2. Scoped collections: Target systems, custodians, and time frames; prefer targeted over sweeping pulls to reduce volume.

3. Modern tooling: Use platforms that support processing, analytics, threading, near-duplication, and TAR (e.g., Relativity, Logikcull).

4. Data governance: Maintain retention schedules and defensible deletion; good hygiene today saves review spend tomorrow.

5. Vendor management: For complex datasets, bring in specialists; define SLAs, format specs, and security expectations up front.

How to Display eDiscovery Skills on Your Resume

7. PACER

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) provides access to U.S. federal case dockets and filings—vital for tracking litigation, deadlines, and judicial activity.

Why It's Important

It’s the primary window into federal dockets, enabling quick retrieval of filings and accurate case monitoring for corporate disputes and related matters.

How to Improve PACER Skills

Get faster, spend less:

1. Know Case Locator: Use it to find matters across districts, set alerts where available, and monitor docket changes without constant manual checks.

2. Control costs: Download and archive locally; avoid repeat pulls. Use tools that surface free or previously downloaded documents when possible.

3. NextGen readiness: Maintain credentials and access for NextGen CM/ECF; map firm accounts, permissions, and billing codes cleanly.

4. Search strategy: Combine party names, attorneys, case numbers, and date ranges; use wildcards and jurisdiction filters to reduce noise.

5. Audit and reconcile: Review monthly statements, allocate costs to matters, and correct duplicates promptly.

How to Display PACER Skills on Your Resume

8. CaseMap

CaseMap helps legal teams organize facts, issues, people, and documents, tying evidence to timelines and themes so cases make sense at a glance.

Why It's Important

It turns scattered pieces into a coherent narrative, improving preparation and collaboration.

How to Improve CaseMap Skills

Make it sing:

1. Customize fields: Tailor issue lists, fact attributes, and document categories to corporate matters and investigations.

2. Consistent entry: Standardize how facts, sources, and citations are recorded; small consistency, big payoff.

3. Integrations: Import emails, filings, and transcripts directly; link exhibits to facts so nothing gets orphaned.

4. Visual outputs: Use reports, chronologies, and charts to brief attorneys and stakeholders quickly.

5. Regular grooming: Prune duplicates, merge entities, and update fact statuses as the case evolves.

How to Display CaseMap Skills on Your Resume

9. Time Matters

Time Matters is practice and matter management software used for calendaring, document handling, contacts, and workflows in legal departments.

Why It's Important

It corrals deadlines, documents, and communications, reducing misses and manual rework.

How to Improve Time Matters Skills

Turn it into a force multiplier:

1. Tailor the data model: Customize matter types, fields, and forms so what you track mirrors how your team actually works.

2. Automate routine: Build templates, checklists, and merge routines for standard letters, NDAs, and board materials.

3. Connect the stack: Integrate with email, document management, and billing; eliminate duplicate entry wherever it hides.

4. Clean data: Schedule maintenance, archive stale matters, and keep indexes healthy for snappier performance.

5. Train and document: Short playbooks and quick videos keep usage consistent across the team.

How to Display Time Matters Skills on Your Resume

10. Bluebook Citation

Bluebook citation is the standard system for citing legal authorities. Precision here signals professionalism and prevents confusion.

Why It's Important

Accurate citations ensure clarity, credibility, and an easy path for readers to verify sources.

How to Improve Bluebook Citation Skills

Fewer errors, more confidence:

1. Know the rules: Focus on the sections you use most—cases, statutes, regulations, administrative materials.

2. Practice daily: Apply formatting in real work; repetition cements the quirks and exceptions.

3. Reference quick guides: Keep a condensed checklist nearby for common forms you touch every week.

4. Use tools wisely: Citation managers (e.g., Zotero, EndNote) can help organize sources—always verify final Bluebook formatting.

5. Stay current: Follow the latest edition updates and margin notes; update templates accordingly.

How to Display Bluebook Citation Skills on Your Resume

11. Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is the system of rules and practices that direct a company. It balances stakeholder interests and guides how decisions get made and monitored.

Why It's Important

Strong governance drives accountability, transparency, and compliance—reducing risk and building long-term value.

How to Improve Corporate Governance Skills

Strengthen the framework:

1. Regulatory fluency: Track applicable laws, listing standards, and regulatory guidance; monitor updates that affect reporting and board processes.

2. Board operations: Maintain clean minutes, organize agendas, and manage director onboarding; support committee charters and annual calendars.

3. Policy hygiene: Keep codes of conduct, insider trading, related-party transactions, and delegation policies current and enforced.

4. Transparent reporting: Align disclosures with recognized standards where appropriate and ensure internal controls support accuracy.

5. Stakeholder engagement: Facilitate channels for investors, employees, and partners; document feedback and responses.

6. Education: Provide periodic training to directors and executives on evolving governance expectations and risks.

How to Display Corporate Governance Skills on Your Resume

12. Compliance Tracking

Compliance tracking means monitoring obligations from laws, regulations, contracts, and policies—and proving you met them.

Why It's Important

It lowers the odds of penalties and surprises, while giving leadership confidence that guardrails are working.

How to Improve Compliance Tracking Skills

Make it systematic, not ad hoc:

1. GRC platforms: Consider tools that centralize obligations, owners, deadlines, and evidence (e.g., OneTrust, ServiceNow, Hyperproof).

2. Reusable checklists: Standardize recurring filings and renewals with templates and workflow steps.

3. Automated reminders: Calendar everything; send nudges before, during, and after key dates to collect proof of completion.

4. Internal audits: Sample-test controls and records; close gaps with corrective action plans and track them to done.

5. Company-wide awareness: Deliver targeted training and short refreshers; measure comprehension and follow-up.

6. Change tracking: Subscribe to legal and regulatory updates, then map changes to policies, controls, and training needs.

7. Feedback loop: Invite suggestions from business partners; refine processes where friction shows up.

How to Display Compliance Tracking Skills on Your Resume