He has practiced law since the late 1940s and founded the law firm Cook & Connelly in 1949 with the late A. Cecil Palmour. Cook attended Gordon Military College and the University of Alabama before earning his law degree from Vanderbilt University. He has bar admissions in multiple court systems with the ability to practice law in the U.S. District Courts, the Northern, Middle & Southern Districts of Georgia and Eastern District of Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, and all Courts in the State of Georgia.