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Legal Resume for Law Student - Always 1 Page Maximum?

I'm getting some conflicting advice from my school's counseling office so wanted to get a take from Attorneys or Legal Recruiters. Currently, my resume is at 2 pages but the counselors are saying I should cut it down to 1 page max. because I'm still a student (1L). They tell me the judges and hiring partners will just toss my resume aside if it's more than 1 page, unless I have prior, direct legal experience. My professors, whom I've also shown my resume to, say my resume at 2 pages looks fine because I had a substantial previous career (10+ years Human Resources management). I also still hold several valid HR certs but the counselors have told me to leave my certs & detailed experience off my resume, and to just condense my HR experience into a few bullet points....all just so I can get it onto 1 page instead of 2. However, I'm applyling to extern in the Labor Courts and at Employment Law firms so I would think that my background could be relevant? Any thoughts? Is 2 pages too long for a law student's resume? Does it make a difference if I'm applying to a different court or firm (say taxation) where my background would not directly relate?

Public Comments

1. Unless you have 30 years of experience, anything longer than one page is too much. Hiring managers don't read it! At the top of your resume, have a section labeled 'Professional Summary'. Have a few sentences about your background, and then bullet points (2 columns will help save space) with the skills or experience most valuable to the position you are applying for. Then have your Employment section and keep the descriptions short and sweet- again utilizing the most relevant duties to the position you are targeting. After that, have your education section. Hope that helps!
2. Leave your resume alone. The one page resume only applies to those students who literally have very little work experience of any kind and they attended law school straight out of undergrad school. Your HR background certainly would play a role in the hiring process and I personally would scrutinize that aspect of your work background. Now are you saying you have 2 full pages or a page in a half? Huge difference. I was in HR over 15 years until I decided to work directly for a law firm as a paralegal until I am able to pursue law school myself.
3. I'm inclined to believe your professors, because its inline with everything I've ever heard. If you've had 10 years experience, then your not the "typical" 23 year old 1L, so the typical rules don't apply to you. It depends directly on what your applying to. With the Labor and Courts, yes it would be good to have your experience in HR, but depending on how much you have written, maybe you can condense some of the job duties/responsibilities and try to shorten it some. if the job your applying to isn't related, I think I'd leave the job on, take off the certifications and very minimally give the job description. Also, play with different resume formats, headers and margins and font or size to condense it without making it look sloppy. Its amazing how things like that can totally change the appearance and then size also.