Brendan Halloway Insurance Coverage and Civil Defense Attorney Denver, 80205, United States [email protected] · (303) 555-0126
11 September 2026
Mr. Tobias Okonkwo Coverage Practice, Hiring Partner Vance Brightwater LLP Salt Lake City, United States
Application for Coverage Counsel, Vance Brightwater LLP, Salt Lake City
Dear Mr. Okonkwo,
I am applying for the coverage counsel post in your Salt Lake City office. I am admitted in Colorado since 2020 and in Wyoming since 2023 by Uniform Bar Examination score transfer, both active and in good standing, and my score remains inside Utah's transfer window, so I could file for Utah admission on acceptance of an offer rather than waiting for a sitting.
My practice is first-party and third-party coverage for national property and casualty carriers. I carry between thirty and forty open files at a time with reserves from $50,000 to $4M, write roughly forty coverage opinions a year, and handle the declaratory judgment actions that follow from them. Last year I tried a premises liability matter to a defense verdict in a Wyoming district court after the carrier's coverage position was challenged mid-case, which meant rebuilding the defense around a reservation of rights in about three weeks.
I am writing to your team specifically because of its four-state footprint. My current firm asked me to open Wyoming in 2023 and I did it by score transfer rather than by hiring, which took a quarter instead of a year, and I built the admissions calendar we now use to plan coverage in new states. That is the piece of work I would most want to bring to a practice that is expanding the same way.
I can give six weeks' notice and I am glad to run a conflicts check whenever it is useful. References from my practice group chair and from two carrier claims directors are available once the process is far enough along. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Brendan Halloway
Summary
An attorney cover letter is a one page letter that answers the admission question before anything else: where you are admitted, since when, and how soon you could practice where this job sits. This guide gives you a four-paragraph adaptable letter, the wording for a pending bar result or an out-of-state move, and the confidentiality rule that governs every example.
Attorney cover letter examples by experience level
An attorney cover letter is a one page letter whose first paragraph answers a single question: can this person practice where the job is, and from when.
Everything else in the letter is ordinary good writing. That first answer is the thing that gets the file passed along, because a hiring partner reading an out-of-state application is doing arithmetic about admission timelines before they reach your second sentence.
Attorney and lawyer are the same role, so for practice area framing and matters lists read the lawyer cover letter guide. This page handles jurisdiction.
Why the admission question comes first
Legal employers screen out geography before they screen for quality. An application from another state is read as a candidate who might need eight months and a bar sitting before they can bill, and most readers will not investigate whether that is true.
Remove the doubt in a clause. "I am admitted in Colorado and in Wyoming by UBE score transfer, and my score remains inside Utah's transfer window" turns an out-of-state application into a local one before the reader has formed an opinion.
How to structure an attorney cover letter
Four paragraphs, under 400 words.
| Paragraph | What it does |
|---|---|
| One | The post, your admissions with years, and your route to admission where the job sits |
| Two | One matter by type, size, forum and your role, with the outcome |
| Three | Why this employer, tied to something specific about their work |
| Four | Availability, conflicts, references, and a close |
What to write when you are moving states
Name the route and the timeline in one sentence. There are only a few, and each reads very differently to a hiring partner.
| Your situation | The sentence that fixes it |
|---|---|
| UBE score inside the window | My July 2023 UBE score of 288 is inside Utah's transfer window and I can file for admission on acceptance of an offer |
| Score aged out, enough years in practice | With 14 years in practice I qualify for admission on motion in Utah, which I have begun |
| Already booked a sitting | I am registered for the February 2027 Colorado bar examination |
| Admitted already | I am admitted in Colorado since 2020 and Wyoming since 2023, both active |
| Appearing through local counsel now | I have appeared pro hac vice in three Montana matters since 2023, sponsored by local counsel |
Say which examination you sat, not just that you passed the bar
Two scoring systems are now in circulation. The Uniform Bar Examination is administered in 33 jurisdictions on a 400-point scale, with minimum passing scores from 260 to 270 and transferred scores accepted for between 2 and 5 years depending on the jurisdiction (National Conference of Bar Examiners, 2026).
The NextGen bar examination was first administered in July 2026 in ten jurisdictions including Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon and Washington, and 49 jurisdictions have announced adoption, most of them in July 2027 and July 2028. NextGen scores are reported on a 500 to 750 scale (NCBE, 2026).
So "passed the bar in 2024" now means less than it used to. Write the examination, the score and the year, and a reader in another state can tell in one line whether your credential travels to them.
Write about matters without naming clients
ABA Model Rule 1.6(a) prohibits revealing information relating to the representation of a client without informed consent, and it is broader than the attorney-client privilege: it covers everything learned during the representation, not only confidential communications (American Bar Association, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.6).
In a cover letter that means no client names, no insured names, no deal names and no docket numbers unless the matter is public record and you were counsel of record. Describe by type, size, forum and your role, which is what the reader wanted anyway.
Answer the admission question in the first three lines. Give the year of each admission. Name your route and timeline if you are not yet admitted where the job is. Describe one matter by type, reserve or amount, forum and your role. Say when you can start and offer a conflicts check. Keep it to one page.
Do not write "licensed to practice law" and leave the jurisdiction unsaid. Do not call yourself an attorney before you are sworn in. Do not present a pro hac vice appearance as an admission. Do not name clients, insureds or parties. Do not restate the resume in prose. Do not apologize for being out of state; give the timeline instead.
The adaptable attorney cover letter example
Dear Mr. Okonkwo,
I am applying for the coverage counsel post in your Salt Lake City office. I am admitted in Colorado since 2020 and in Wyoming since 2023 by Uniform Bar Examination score transfer, both active and in good standing, and my score remains inside Utah's transfer window, so I could file for Utah admission on acceptance of an offer rather than waiting for a sitting.
My practice is first-party and third-party coverage for national property and casualty carriers. I carry between thirty and forty open files at a time with reserves from $50,000 to $4M, write roughly forty coverage opinions a year, and handle the declaratory judgment actions that follow from them. Last year I tried a premises liability matter to a defense verdict in a Wyoming district court after the carrier's coverage position was challenged mid-case, which meant rebuilding the defense around a reservation of rights in about three weeks.
I am writing to your team specifically because of its four-state footprint. My current firm asked me to open Wyoming in 2023 and I did it by score transfer rather than by hiring, which took a quarter instead of a year, and I built the admissions calendar we now use to plan coverage in new states. That is the piece of work I would most want to bring to a practice that is expanding the same way.
I can give six weeks' notice and I am glad to run a conflicts check whenever it is useful. References from my practice group chair and from two carrier claims directors are available once the process is far enough along. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Brendan Halloway
Writing the letter while you wait on a bar result
Say the sitting, the expected result month, and where character and fitness stands. Employers hire new admittees on this basis constantly, and vagueness is what sinks the application rather than the pending status itself.
One sentence does it: "I sat the Colorado bar examination in July 2026 with results expected in October, my character and fitness application was approved in August, and I am available as a law clerk in the meantime."
Do not sign the letter "Attorney at Law" or add Esq. before you are sworn in.
Most of the market is small employers, and they read letters closely
For the class of 2024, 93.4% of law graduates were employed ten months out, 84.3% in jobs requiring bar admission, and 58.9% went into private practice (National Association for Law Placement, Class of 2024 Selected Findings, March 2025). Inside private practice, 25.6% of those jobs were in firms of 1 to 10 lawyers and 32.4% in firms of 11 to 250, against 34.2% in firms of 501 or more (NALP, March 2025).
Government took 12.9% of the class, judicial clerkships 10.0% and public interest 9.7%.
A small firm or a lean legal department reads a cover letter properly, and it hires on whether you can be productive quickly. In that setting the admission timeline is not an administrative footnote; it is most of the decision.
Key takeaways for an attorney cover letter
- Answer the admission question in the first three lines.
- Give the year and standing of each admission.
- If you are not yet admitted where the job is, name the route and the timeline.
- Write the examination and score, not just "passed the bar".
- Describe one matter by type, size, forum and your role, with no client name.
- Never use Esq. or "Attorney at Law" before you are sworn in.
Build the matching document with the Rezoom AI resume builder, and check the resume it produces with the free ATS resume checker.
The full attorney resume guide covers the admissions block in detail, and the lawyer resume guide covers practice area and matters lists.
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Attorney cover letter questions, answered
How long should an attorney cover letter be?
One page, four paragraphs, under 400 words. Legal readers are fast and unsentimental about length, and a letter that runs over is the first evidence they have about how you edit.
Do I put my bar admissions in the cover letter as well as the resume?
Yes, in the first paragraph, with years. The resume carries the full block; the letter carries the one line that decides whether the reader keeps going. Repeating it is not redundancy, it is the point.
What if I am not admitted in the state where the job is?
Say so in the same breath as your route and timeline: a UBE score inside that state's transfer window, eligibility for admission on motion, or a sitting already booked. What sinks out-of-state applications is not the fact, it is the reader having to guess how long it would take.
Can I write "Esq." or "Attorney at Law" while results are pending?
No. Until you are sworn in you are a law graduate or law clerk, and in most states holding yourself out as an attorney before admission is a misrepresentation with consequences well beyond the application. Say the sitting date and the expected result month instead.
Should I mention pro hac vice appearances?
Yes, in the body of the letter as experience, with the state, the number of matters and the years. Never in a sentence that could be read as an admission. A hiring partner who thinks you have overstated your admissions will stop reading.