Bridget Cook graduated from UW Law in 2025 where she was the president of the Women’s Law Student Association and the Senior Note and Comment Editor for the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society. She was also a Graduate Advisor at the Center for Pre-Law Advising! Bridget is now working at the Wisconsin Department of Justice as an Appellate Fellow. Prior to law school, Bridget earned a BA in English and Environmental Studies at the University of Michigan and worked for 4 years in corporate sustainability. In her free time, Bridget loves to read, craft, listen to Taylor Swift, and cuddle with her cat Bubbles.
See our conversation with Bridget below, where she shares insights into her journey to law school and beyond, lessons learned, and advice for aspiring professionals.
Spring 2026 Interview with Bridget Cook
Q: How did you discover this career path? What led you to choose this path?
A: I worked in corporate sustainability before law school, and I enjoyed working with the attorneys who helped us with things like product claims and compliance with government mandates. In law school, I considered environmental law, property/real estate law, and family law before I decided I hoped to do criminal appeals. I think criminal appeals is the perfect area for me because I feel like I am making a real impact, but I get to do it by taking my time, thinking carefully about the issues, and writing.
Q: How often do you work with others vs. independently in your current role?
A: A lot of my work in appeals is independent. I have coworkers around who are more than happy to help me or talk through my cases, but I can also just hide away in my office and tackle the issues.
Q: What’s one misconception people often have about law school/med school or your profession?
A: People often think lawyers are in court arguing with the judge all of the time, or that you have to work 80 hours a week to be a good lawyer. There are places you can work where you spend more time in court, but there are also areas of law where you almost never go to court. Some legal jobs require heavy workloads, but they reward you with high salaries and not every job expects that. There are a lot of areas of law that each bring their own style of working.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you have learned?
A: Law school and being a lawyer are not the same thing. People say that law school teaches you to think like a lawyer, but then working actually teaches you the law. I think that’s true, but also there is a real difference between the topics I enjoyed in my law school classes and what I enjoyed doing in practice. For example, I really liked learning about property law, but criminal appeals was a better fit for me in how I like to work.
Q: How do you maintain work-life balance?
A: Working for the government affords more balance than some legal jobs. I work hard while I’m at work, but I don’t often have to work on the weekends or too late at night. I try to make sure I have a couple of activities with friends each week to look forward to, and I have a lot of hobbies I like to engage with outside of work!
Q: What kinds of opportunities (research, internships, clinics, etc.) have you found most valuable in your journey?
A: Clinics were definitely a big part of my experience in law school. I was in the Government and Legislative Clinic, the Family Legal Advocacy and Supports Clinic, and the Criminal Appeals Project. Those clinics helped me explore different areas of law and determine where I wanted to focus. They also provided opportunities for real legal work under the supervision of practicing attorneys. I also had several internships during law school which provided more real-world experience and opportunities to explore different areas of law and make connections in the legal community. Finally, I was a member of the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society (eventually the Senior Note and Comment Editor) which is a student-run journal publishing legal scholarship written by students and scholars. This was a huge factor in my legal research and writing proficiency.
Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
A: I would tell my younger self to start thinking about how I want to work rather than focusing on what I want to do. For example, I always enjoyed reading and writing, but I was afraid I wouldn’t get a job in anything related to my English degree, so I focused more on environmental policy in school and in job applications. Then, I ended up with a job that required more math and science than I really enjoyed and decided to go to law school as a way to combine my interest in law and policy with my desire to do more reading and writing. Thinking about the types of work I enjoyed might have helped me find a job that I connected with sooner!
Q: What words of encouragement would you share with students who may be unsure or intimidated by this career path?
A: You can do it! There are so many different ways to be a lawyer, and you can find an area of law or a type of practice that feels aligned with who you are and what you want to do. That said, it’s important to think about it before you go to law school! It’s 3 years of your life and can be a lot of money. Don’t do it if you don’t think it’s right for you!
Q: What’s one small habit or mindset shift that made a big difference in your journey?
A: Giving myself grace with the things I can’t control, but trying my best on the things I can. In law school, grades are really different in that you usually just have one final exam that determines your grade, and it is curved so that you might really understand the material and still not get an A. That’s hard when you’re a perfectionist, but going into an exam knowing you are prepared and doing the best you can on it feels better than worrying about the outcome which depends on how everyone else does. It’s easier said than done, but I do think it helps. Once you get into practice, the same rule applies but in a different way. If I’m submitting a brief to the court, I don’t know what the judge is going to think. I just have to put forward the best product I can.