Cover Letter
Lawyer Cover Letter Examples: How to Open With a Deal, Not a Job Title
A lawyer's cover letter is judged by the same standard as their legal writing: precise, evidence-led, and free of throat-clearing. Hiring partners skim dozens of these in one sitting, so the letters that stand out open with a specific matter or result rather than a restatement of the job posting, then use the body to prove range across deal types or case outcomes instead of listing soft skills.
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Example Cover Letter
Opening
When a last-minute regulatory objection threatened to derail my client's €280M cross-border acquisition three weeks before signing, I restructured the closing timeline and personally drafted the antitrust filing that got the deal signed on schedule. I want to bring that same instinct for solving deal-threatening problems under deadline to Harrington & Cole's Corporate M&A group.
Body
Over four years as an associate at my current firm, I have advised on 15+ M&A and private equity transactions ranging from €20M to €450M in value, running due diligence workstreams, negotiating purchase agreements, and coordinating with counsel across six jurisdictions. I built a reputation among partners for owning ancillary workstreams end-to-end, including a data-privacy carve-out on a recent deal that required reconciling GDPR and US disclosure obligations under a two-week deadline. That transaction closed without a single post-signing indemnity claim, which the client's general counsel specifically credited to the diligence rigor I insisted on. I am now looking to bring that transactional discipline to a firm with a larger cross-border private equity practice.
Closing
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how my transactional experience and cross-border deal exposure could support your Corporate group's continued growth. I am admitted to practice in New York and available to interview at your convenience, and I have attached my CV along with a deal sheet summarizing representative matters for your review.
Tips
Dos and Don'ts
Do
Don't
Ideal Length & Format
One page is the norm for associate-level cover letters, matching the CV's own length discipline at that stage, since hiring partners read these quickly between other work and reward economy of language. Partner-level candidates can extend to slightly more than a page if a portable book of business or notable matters genuinely require the space, but even then the letter should stay tighter than the CV itself.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
One page for the vast majority of applications, including senior associate and junior partner moves; only equity partner candidates with a substantial book of business to summarize should approach a page and a half.
Only if the matter is public, such as reported in legal press or court filings, or you have explicit permission; otherwise describe the transaction by sector, approximate value, and your role without naming the client.
No — use the letter to add narrative context, such as why you handled a matter a certain way or what a result meant for the client, rather than restating bullet points the CV already covers.
Yes — at junior partner and equity partner level, firms are hiring for portable clients as much as legal skill, so the letter should summarize your origination and client relationships alongside your matter experience.
No — reusing a generic letter is easy for hiring partners to spot, since it typically fails to reference the specific practice group, recent deals, or clients that a tailored letter would mention.
Opening with a restatement of the job posting instead of a concrete result, which wastes the one sentence a busy hiring partner is most likely to actually read closely.
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