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The Functional Lawyer Resume PDF Print E-mail

Today's lawyer resumes generally fall into one of two broad categories: the chronological resume and the functional resume. The chronological lawyer resume lists all work experience from the mos recent to the least recent in reverse chronological order. The functional lawyer resume, on the other hand, focuses on the candidate's skills and experience, rather than on their chronological work history.

While the chronological resume is the most popular form of resume used by lawyers, the functional lawyer resume can be a good alternative in certain circumstances. Lawyers who may want to consider a functional format include:

 

  •   Experienced lawyers who want to present a unified theme in their work experience, or who want to take the focus away from their age and experience as not to appear "overqualified" or too senior for a position.
  •   Lawyers who have practiced in different fields or practice areas from the type of position they are seeking (e.g. from law firm to in-house, or from litigation to corporate).
  •  Lawyers who left the practice or who have gaps on their resumes (e.g. such as women who took time off to raise children, or those who have had more than a 6-months gap between positions).  
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    That said, unless you are in a situation where the functional lawyer resume makes the most sense (e.g. you are returning to the work for after a long hiatus), you should note that most legal employers and recruiters generally do not favor the functional resume. Most legal employers are accustomed to the chronological resume, and many online application programs do not accept functional resumes.

    To be safe, you should try to create both a chronological and functional lawyer resume, present both resumes to colleagues and recruiters in your field, and see which one they feel best reflects your skills and experience. Again, before sending any resume, you need to know your audience and their expectations. You also should consider what resume format they will be most receptive to.

    Here is a general template of a functional lawyer resume:

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    The Foreclosure Prevention Series, Part I: Understanding the Terminology Print E-mail

    The Three Most-Used Methods of Resolving a Foreclosure
    by: Dave Dinkel

    While there are numerous ways to stop foreclosures, three are used most frequently. They are: loan reinstatement, forbearance agreement, and loan modification.

    1Loan reinstatement is where a lender has started the foreclosure process and the homeowner finds a way to pay back or "reinstate" the entire deficiency owed. The deficiency amount includes back loan principal and interest payments, accelerated interest costs, attorney's fees, assorted processing and collection expenses, and late penalty charges. This technique requires the maximum amount of money all at once. Ironically, lenders recently indicated that pre-payment penalties may be included into final judgments in the near future.

    When the homeowner's reason for the delinquency is resolved, he or she usually asks the lender to take partial payments because he or she can't get the entire deficiency amount together. However, the lender will not accept partial payments and the foreclosure will proceed if the full reinstatement amount isn't paid. The reason for this is simple, the lender knows that the homeowner's chance of getting out of, and staying out of foreclosure is less than 1 in 8. So the lender does not want to delay the inevitable, the loss of the home to foreclosure.

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