Classic · Single column · ATS 5/5
Legal CV template
Justified copy under centred, underlined headings — a CV that reads like a filing.
Classic layouts follow conventions that predate the web, which is precisely why they still work in academia, law, government and the older professions. It runs as one column with no photo, which is the combination most application portals and most UK, US and Irish employers prefer.
Live preview of the Legal CV template, rendered at full page size with an example CV. The preview is the same code that generates your PDF.
The design
About the Legal CV layout
Who it’s for
The readers and situations this layout was drawn for.
- Solicitors, barristers and paralegals
- Training contract and pupillage applications
- Compliance, judicial and in-house counsel roles
Key features
What is actually different about this template on the page.
- Centred name with a hairline rule beneath
- Underlined small-caps section headings
- Justified body copy
- Tight, conservative vertical spacing
ATS score 5/5 · Excellent
How this layout behaves in an applicant tracking system
A perfect parsing score: the document is a single sequence of headed text blocks, so an extractor recovers your history in the order you wrote it rather than in the order elements happen to sit on the page.
Because there is only one text column, an extractor never has to decide which block to read first — the page has exactly one reading order and it is the one you can see.
There is little left to fix here. If you want to see how the rest of the parser-safe range compares — and what a 5 out of 5 is actually measuring — the ATS CV templates page scores every layout on the same criteria.
- Reading order
- Single flow
- Headings
- Real text
- Tables
- None
- Images
- None
- Selectable text
- Yes
Scores are our own assessment of how a parser handles the layout — never a guarantee about one specific employer’s system.
In practice
Three situations Legal CV is the right answer to
A recruiter who will re-format your CV
Agencies routinely re-key a CV into their own house template before sending it to a client. Starting from a plain, correctly structured document means what arrives at the client end still resembles what you wrote. The reader it was drawn for: Solicitors, barristers and paralegals.
A long formal record
One column with generous leading suits a document that may legitimately run to three pages — an academic or legal CV is not trying to be a one-page pitch, and compressing it signals the wrong thing.
A UK, US, Canadian or Irish application
Employers in these markets discourage photographs outright — some screening teams remove them before a hiring manager sees the file, to keep the process defensible. Starting without one means nothing has to be removed. Legal CV has no photo slot to remove, so the same file works in every market you send it to.
Make it yours
Customising Legal CV
Accent colour
Legal CV ships with #0f172a as its accent. Near-black or a very dark neutral is the honest choice. These layouts are designed to survive being photocopied and scanned by a committee secretary, and a mid-tone accent is the first thing to disappear when they are.
Fonts and heading style
A serif body is the point of this family. If you switch to a sans, drop the font size a notch — the spacing is set for serif text and looks loose without it. Heading case — uppercase, capitalised or as typed — is a separate switch, and it changes the character of the page more than most people expect.
Spacing and density
Font size, line height, section spacing and page margins are all sliders. On a single column they behave predictably: reduce section spacing first, margins second, and only then the type size — a CV set below 9.5pt starts to look like an attempt to hide its length.
Sections and order
Education often outranks experience here, and publications, awards and references all have a legitimate place. Reordering takes one drag, which matters because the convention differs by field and by country. Every section can be renamed, reordered or hidden, and Pro adds custom sections for anything the standard set does not cover.
Paper size and export
A4 or US Letter, switched in one control, with the layout re-flowing to the new page rather than being scaled to fit. The PDF is generated from the same code you see in the preview, so what you approve on screen is what downloads.
Legal CV: common questions
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Keep exploring
- All classic templatesEvery design in the Classic family, side by side.
- One-column templatesThe full single-column range, across all six categories.
- CV templatesFormats, page counts and conventions by country and career stage.
- ATS CV templatesWhat a parser does with your file, and the layouts built to survive it.
- CV examplesWorked examples by role, with the wording and structure explained.
- Pricing and plansWhat Pro unlocks, and how the one-off Lifetime plan compares.
Start your CV with Legal CV
Open it with the example content already in place, replace it with your own, and download a PDF when it reads the way you want. Switching to another template later keeps every word you have written.
Free to start. A Pro or Lifetime plan unlocks this design and every other one.