Candice Cook Simmons, Esq. is the Managing Partner at The Cook Law Group, PLLC, a published writer, noted philanthropist, and business strategist in the technology, entertainment, and corporate/business sectors. Educated at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt Law School with attendance at additional programs at Oxford and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, her career began in private practice as a corporate litigator. Cook later expanded her experience to include a vast array of intellectual property, media, telecommunications, and social media issues. Her success in finding creative business-oriented solutions resulted in her invitation to join the Advisory Committee of several startups including BlazeTrak, Para Music Group, and fashion industry pioneer, Fashion Advance. Today, Cook’s firm has handled groundbreaking intellectual property matters—including the trademarking and strategy behind Dominique Ansel’s Cronut™ pastry—and business, entertainment, social impact/entrepreneurship, and talent issues for clients across the globe including Japan, China, Israel, Monaco, Mexico, France, U.S., UAE, and the UK. She also Co-founded an early stage investment accelerator–Wrd Ventures–with Venmo co-founder, Iqram Magdon Ismail. She has been honored as a Pearl Honoree, a finalist for Atlanta’s Power 30 Under 30 Award, a winner of the Celebration Award in Law, and as an Influential Women at the Potential to Power Girls Symposium by the YWCA. She was selected as the Hollywood Power Player by Hollywood & Vine Magazine and the Barrier Breaker award recipient for her work in the field of law and for her vast hands-on philanthropic engagement addressing education, humanitarian matters, and social justice. She appeared in the HBO documentary “Good hair,” the 2009 winner for Special Jury Prize for U.S. documentary at the Sundance Film Festival as well as the documentary Sag Harbor on the OWN network as part of the #Selma50 network campaign. She has appeared in the American Bar Association Journal, O Magazine, Elle Magazine, Essence, Forbes, Crown Magazine, The Today Show, and Sirius Radio. She was cited as one of the top interviews for the “Talentedly” platform as well as one of the top-five podcast interviews for “Today’s Leading Women” and was the number 1 downloaded interview on the business podcast “Beyond The Business Suit”. She has spoken at Google, SXSW, Smart City Expo Atlanta, Women Lawyers in Tech, The WNBA, and The Lady Project Summit. Cook has written for Levo League, Women 2.0, and Conscious Magazine and was a contributing author to the books Unconditional published by National Geographic and Conquering The Bar Exam. She also served as Co-Editor of the Culture Shift Labs 20 People To Watch of 2015. She serves as an Advisory Executive Member for the United Way of New York’s Young Professional Board, is an Advisory Board Member for TheHistoryMakers in Chicago, works to increase engagement as a Committee Member for Jazz at Lincoln Center, served as the Young Professional Board Member for both the Apollo Theater and America Needs You and served on the Leadership Board for the Council of Urban Professionals.