Lauren Scholnick
Lauren Scholnick was born in Skokie, Illinois and grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. She graduated in 1988 from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations.
Lauren worked on several successful political campaigns in Illinois and Cook County and also served as an appropriations and legislative analyst for the Illinois State Senate handling elementary and secondary education issues. When the Supreme Court of Illinois struck down Chicago School Reform, Lauren staffed a week long public hearing on rewriting the law and decided it was time for a new job. She was named Legislative Director of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 and lobbied the Illinois General Assembly for this public employee labor union. After helping pass early retirement, family/medical leave and pay equity bills for state employees, Lauren went to University of Illinois College of Law where she also organized university support staff for AFSCME.
In 1995, Lauren was admitted to practice in Illinois and served a judicial clerkship for Judge Gregory K. Orme at the Utah Court of Appeals. In 1996, she was campaign manager for Jim Bradley in his bid for Governor of Utah. Lauren then became Director of Development at Utah Legal Services and spearheaded the “and Justice for all” campaign to raise funds for civil legal services. She was admitted to practice in Utah in 1997 to practice in Idaho in 2006.
Lauren is actively involved in the legal community and currently serves on the Utah Legal Services’ Board of Trustees and on the Utah Association for Justice Board of Governors (formerly the Utah Trial Lawyers Association) and will be president of that organization in 2010. She usually spends most of the legislative session lobbying on behalf of employees and spends over 100 hours each year on pro bono cases and matters. She is a member of the Federal Bar Association, National Employment Lawyers Association, Utah Democratic Lawyers Council, Women Lawyers of Utah and the Christensen Inn of Court. Lauren is a supervising attorney in the Street Law Project, where every month she supervises law students who give legal advice and take on pro bono cases for low-income citizens.
Lauren was named Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2004 and Employment Lawyer of the Year in 2007 both by the Utah State Bar. Her firm won the Utah ACLU’s Mickey Duncan Award for its legal work in civil rights cases in 2008. She has been named one of Utah’s Legal Elite and a Mountain States Super Lawyer in labor and employment law on multiple occasions.
Lauren is married to Steve Cook, a two-time gold-medal Paralympian in nordic skiing. Lauren especially enjoys backcountry skiing, mountain biking, fly fishing, and camping. We used to say that her one character flaw was that she was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan but she has pledged to give up the Cubbies after their abysmal showing in the 2008 post-season! She is now trying hard to root for the L.A. Angels instead.
