List every bar admission where a hiring reader can find it in seconds: a short "Bar admissions" line high on the first page, written as the jurisdiction's own name plus the year, and only for states where you are actually admitted.
While an application is pending, the line says exactly that.
Multiple and inactive licenses each get a labeled entry of their own.
Where bar admission goes on a resume
A resume for attorney jobs has one job ahead of the others: make it unmistakable where you are admitted and what your status is in each jurisdiction.
Give the answer its own space on the first page, where a skimming reader lands before scrolling.
Two placements work, and the choice matters less than the consistency.
Give admissions their own one-to-three-line "Bar admissions" block near the top, alongside education — or fold each admission into the education block as an "Admitted: [State], [year]" line.
Pick one and keep all of your admissions in that one place, so a reader who finds your first admission finds the rest there too.
Keep the line out of your name-and-contact header and out of your experience bullets — an admission is a credential, not a bullet point from a job.
For the resume around this line — section order, length, what hiring partners look for — our attorney resume guide owns the whole document.
How to format a bar admission line
One line per admission: the jurisdiction, named the way the admitting state names itself, plus the year of admission.
Two patterns read cleanly:
- [State], [year] — the compact form; fits inside an education block
- Admitted to practice in [State], [year] — the full form; suits a section of its own
Whichever you pick, hold it for every entry: same pattern, same order (newest first is the easy sort), same section.
Spell the state out rather than abbreviating it, and use the admitting jurisdiction — not the city you work in, and not the state your clients sit in.
What stays out of the line: exam scores, your bar number, and any jurisdiction you have applied to without an admission yet — the pending case gets its own wording in the next section.
The line's whole content is the jurisdiction, the year and, where the status is anything other than active, the status.
How to list bar pending on a resume
A pending application is not an admission, so the line cannot borrow the admitted wording.
Name the jurisdiction and the status, and let "pending" do its work:
- [State] bar — application pending
- Admission pending, [State]
The wording is not just cosmetics.
ABA Model Rule 5.5(b)(2) says a lawyer not admitted in a jurisdiction must not hold out or represent that they are admitted there.
A resume line reading "Admitted in Colorado" while a Colorado application is still open is that representation in writing; "Colorado bar — application pending" stays accurate until admission actually happens, at which point the line simply changes.
If the status itself is the fuzzy part — what "bar pending" covers on a posting, what a pre-admission hire can and cannot do — our bar pending explainer owns that question, and the wording here sits on top of it.
The model rule is a model
How to list multiple bar admissions
Each admission gets its own line, in one section, newest first:
- Bar admissions
- [State A], [year]
- [State B], [year]
- [State C], [year] (inactive)
Don't compress them into "admitted in multiple states."
Licensing is not a single registry: per the ABA, lawyers are licensed by a state agency in each state, and that agency is the body that can confirm whether a person has a law license and may practice there.
A reader checking the line needs jurisdiction names, because each state licenses through its own agency.
The model rule behind the pending line speaks to this list too: ABA Model Rule 5.5(b)(2) says a lawyer not admitted in a jurisdiction must not hold out or represent that they are admitted there.
That is the ABA's model wording, not any one state's rule, so confirm each state's own version before relying on it.
An admissions list should contain admissions — a state where an application sits unfinished stays off it, in the pending wording of the last section instead.
The harder question with several licenses is not formatting but scope: practicing in a state where you are not licensed, temporary practice, remote work from another state.
That is a different page — can you practice law in a state where you are not licensed? owns the rules, and this one formats the licenses you already hold.
How to list an inactive bar admission
An inactive license still represents an admission that happened, so the line stays on the resume — with its current status attached. "[State], [year] (inactive)" tells the reader where things stand at a glance; "[State], [year]" alone leaves the status to be discovered later, in an interview or a records check, which is the worst place for a resume line to be corrected.
The label is also a records question, and the record is not yours to assert — it is the agency's.
Per the ABA, the state agency that licenses lawyers can confirm whether a person has a law license and may practice there, so a status you print is a status that registry can contradict.
In New Hampshire and South Dakota, the ABA's licensing directory notes that confirming a lawyer's license and good standing means phoning the bar association.
Check your own record before the resume goes out, so the line you wrote and the line the agency would give match — our attorney license lookup guide walks the search state by state.
What each state calls its non-practicing statuses, and what each takes to reactivate, is set by that state's agency — the research behind this page did not verify those rules, so write the status word your agency uses rather than the one that reads best.
Career information, not legal advice — bar admission status is set by the agency that licenses lawyers in each state, so confirm your own record with that agency before anything goes on a resume.