Veteran litigator Philip Cook shifts to full-time mediation

Trial lawyer and mediator Philip Cook announced Friday that he has closed his law practice to focus exclusively on alternative dispute resolution.

"You can't do both," Cook explained, referring to the challenges of maintaining a litigation practice while pursuing mediation.

His legal career began in 1990 after graduating from UCLA School of Law. He started at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. His early career included a clerkship with U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall of the Central District of California, followed by positions at two other Los Angeles law firms.

In 1995, Cook joined Jones Day, where he spent nearly two decades. In 2015, he founded The Cook Law Firm, expanding his practice to represent both plaintiffs and defendants in various business litigation matters while simultaneously building a mediation practice. "As a trial lawyer, I'd been involved in hundreds of mediations. I had a sense of what you were supposed to do, but you don't really understand how to mediate a case until you mediate a case," he explained. "In 2008, I signed up and took training to be an early neutral evaluator, and I ended up mediating cases."

Reflecting on his passion for the law and mediation, Cook said, "I love digging into legal problems. I love the way lawyers do their job. I love advocacy." He said he sees mediation as a natural progression, allowing him to engage with "people's stories and their narrative" from multiple perspectives.