Amy Cook is an attorney, freelance writer and seminar leader. She focuses her legal practice on issues affecting writers and small publishers, and has 15 years experience with intellectual property issues such as copyright, publishing contracts, defamation and invasion of privacy, and First Amendment issues.

She began her legal career in 1993 in Colorado, and then moved back to her hometown of Chicago to work in legal publishing. In 1999, she went to work at a literary agency before starting her own shop in 2001, where she focused on representing food writers. While she is not taking on new clients as an agent, she continues to manage her current clients’ writing careers.

Cook is former Editor-in-Chief (now managing editor) of the Chicago Bar Association’s magazine, The Record; was a contributing editor at Writer’s Digest magazine for many years (and former author and creator of their Ask the Lawyer column); and on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for the Creative Arts. She has also served as a judge in writing contests sponsored by the CBA and Writer’s Digest.

She frequently speaks on getting published and legal issues affecting writers at places such as the Newberry Library, University of Chicago’s Graham School of Continuing Education, Columbia College, UIC, DePaul, the Chicago Bar Association, local libraries, and to many professional associations and writer groups.

Cook holds a J.D. and a master’s in journalism from Drake University, and a B.A. in mass communications from UCLA. She lives in Geneva, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, with her husband Bill and twin boys.