Notary Public CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is a self-employed notary public who prepares documents for use abroad for law firms, businesses and private clients, with a conveyancing background behind it. The name and the firms are made up. Look at the first four lines: admission, practising certificate, insurance and volume. Referring firms check those before anything else.

For a self-employed notary, the CV is really a supplier application. A law firm or company is deciding whether sending its clients to you creates risk for them.

• Admission and practising certificate. A lapsed practising certificate is an immediate no. Give the year you were admitted and confirm the certificate is current.
• Professional standing. Membership of the Notaries Society and a clean disciplinary record matter to firms that refer their own clients.
• Volume and accuracy. Notarial acts completed and how often documents come back from foreign authorities. One wrong certificate can delay a completion abroad.
• Turnaround. Appointment availability and how quickly documents come back with apostilles. These decide whether an overseas deal completes on schedule.
• Professional indemnity insurance. It protects your clients and reassures the referring firm. Say it is in place and give the cover level if it helps you.
• Coverage. Towns or a mileage radius, plus whether you take evening, weekend, home and hospital appointments.
• Remote appointments. If you carry out remote notarial appointments where they are accepted, say so and name the platforms.

“Three lines decide it before anything else: when you were admitted, whether your practising certificate is current, and whether your insurance is in place. Then volume and rejection rate. A notary who tells me two thousand notarial acts and under half a per cent rejected gets a test referral. A CV that just says detail-oriented does not.”

In England and Wales a notary public is a qualified lawyer, so most people asking this are solicitors who are also notaries, or people who held a US notary commission and now apply for UK jobs. The two are not the same: a US commission is a basic signing role with no UK equivalent, while a UK notary is admitted and regulated by the Faculty Office. Put it in the right place and keep it to one line.

Where exactly to put it: a Qualifications block near the bottom for most legal jobs, but move it up under your name if the job advert asks for a notary. Some private client, property and corporate adverts screen on the word, so if the job description says notary, the word should appear in your personal statement as well.

These items are the credential section of a notary CV, and they are the part people most often get wrong. Rules change, so treat the following as a checklist to confirm with the Faculty Office, not as a full statement of the rules.

• Admission: notaries in England and Wales are admitted by the Faculty Office after completing the required notarial practice course, usually on top of a law degree or legal qualification. Put the year you were admitted.
• Supervision: newly admitted notaries usually practise under supervision for an initial period. If you have completed it, say so and when.
• Practising certificate: renewed every year through the Faculty Office. Say it is current rather than listing a certificate number.
• Professional indemnity insurance: required for practising notaries and something referring firms ask about. Give the cover level if it is a selling point.
• Records: notaries keep a register of notarial acts and keep copies of what they notarise. Say you keep both and follow the retention rules.
• Remote notarisation: possible for some acts and some receiving countries, subject to Faculty Office guidance. Name the platforms you use and the kinds of act you complete remotely.
• Anti-money laundering: notarial practices are supervised for AML purposes, and client due diligence is part of every new instruction. Mention your AML training and the year.

Three or four lines. Admission year, practising certificate, volume, coverage area. If you are newly admitted, use a career objective and lead with the qualification plus your availability.

The stock notary job description you find online reads: notarise documents, verify identity, maintain records. Every notary does that. Add volume, document types and accuracy.

Split them into the notarial work, the document knowledge and the running of a small business, because a self-employed notary is running one.

• Notarial acts: notarial certificates, attestation of signatures, certified copies, statutory declarations, affidavits and oaths for use abroad
• Documents: powers of attorney for use abroad, overseas property sale and purchase documents, company documents and board resolutions, certified copies of passports and degree certificates, travel consent letters for children
• Compliance: identity verification, capacity and understanding checks, register keeping, seal security, refusal of improper requests, anti-money laundering checks, confidentiality
• Technology: remote appointment platforms, e-signature systems, laser printing, mobile scanning, encrypted file transfer
• Business: scheduling and confirmations, mileage and expense tracking, invoicing and self-assessment records, client follow-up, marketing to law firms, accountants and estate agents
• People skills: calm handling of nervous or elderly clients, clear explanation of what each page is, and the ability to stop an appointment that is not right

The ability to stop an appointment matters more than it sounds. Referring firms remember the notary who called before a document was signed with the wrong name spelling, not the one who notarised it anyway.

A brand new admission with no notarial work is not a problem if you show that you are ready to work tomorrow. Referring firms want to know that you are admitted, insured, equipped and reachable.

1. 1Line one: admission year and practising certificate status. Nothing goes above it.
2. 2Line two: Notaries Society membership and any supervision arrangement, with the month it started.
3. 3Line three: professional indemnity insurance in place, with the cover level.
4. 4List your equipment: laser printer, portable scanner, seal, ribbons and eyelets for binding, locked document case. Referring firms ask about this in the first email.
5. 5State your coverage area by county or town and your availability, including evenings, weekends and same-day work.
6. 6Use your prior work to prove document accuracy: conveyancing, private client, banking, company secretarial work, immigration support. All of them involve checking identity documents.
7. 7Introduce yourself to local law firms, accountants and estate agents with overseas clients, and say which ones already refer work to you.

One page for a supplier CV, two at most for a job application. Plain single-column layout, no photo, no graphics. Referring firms print these and keep them on a supplier file, and larger employers run them through applicant tracking software that reads plain text.

• Mirror the job advert's words: 'notary public', 'notarial acts', 'apostille', 'legalisation', 'powers of attorney', 'certified copies', 'register', 'remote notarisation', 'professional indemnity', 'AML'.
• Give your admission year, confirm your practising certificate is current, and update the file whenever you renew.
• If you are applying for a legal job rather than notarial work, keep the notarial qualification to one line in a qualifications block and spend the space on the job you actually want.
• Do not publish your seal image, your signature or a scan of your register on a public job board.
• Give a phone number you answer during business hours. Clients and firms call, and the work goes to whoever picks up.

One final read: if the top five lines do not tell a referring firm when you were admitted, that your practising certificate is current and that you are insured, move those lines up before you send it.