Cassidy Lopez

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Cassidy Lopez ’22 likes being the person her colleagues can turn to when they need help working through a legal question. As associate counsel at CVS Health working with Aetna, she helps them make decisions that shape the company’s health insurance plans.

Her work covers states from Florida to Maryland, where she reviews contract and benefit language, works with insurance regulators, and helps business partners understand state and federal requirements. Getting to know people across the company is one of her favorite parts of the job. Those relationships help her understand their work and offer guidance they can use.

“I think that makes me feel the most fulfilled is knowing that I’m actually making a difference in our work product,” she said.

It’s the kind of work she began to picture for herself at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, where the business law advising certificate helped her see a future in corporate practice. Getting there took a few years, an MBA, and some persistence.

Shortly after graduation, a family friend who worked with Aetna sent Lopez several job openings and encouraged her to apply. Four rounds of interviews later, she joined CVS Health as a state regulatory analyst in December 2022.

The position put her legal research and writing skills to work right away. She interpreted state requirements and helped draft health benefit contract language, learning the business as she went. Through the company’s education assistance program, she also earned an MBA, with CVS Health covering the cost. Studying how companies weigh financial, strategic, and legal considerations gave her more insight into the questions coming across her desk and strengthened her interest in becoming an attorney within the company.

Encouraged by her husband and family, Lopez kept making professional connections and pursuing opportunities. In June 2025, just weeks before her wedding, she received an offer to become associate counsel. She brought both regulatory experience and a business education to a role she now considers a particularly good fit.

Her interest in becoming a lawyer goes back much further. In sixth grade, Lopez announced her career plans during a school presentation. She grew up in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, earned a political science degree at West Chester University, and went straight to law school.

Widener Law Commonwealth initially appealed to her because it was close to family. A campus visit with her parents helped her imagine what studying there would feel like. She liked the smaller classrooms and welcoming atmosphere, especially the prospect of professors knowing her and taking an interest in how she was doing.

A course with Professor Christian Johnson introduced her to a side of practice she wanted to explore further and encouraged her to pursue the business law advising certificate.

“Those courses on business law helped me figure out, you know, I think I wanted to work in the corporate sector,” she said.

She also made room to try other kinds of legal work. At Handler, Henning & Rosenberg, she worked on personal injury and workers’ compensation matters. At PennFuture’s Harrisburg office, she researched environmental issues related to infrastructure projects. A clerkship with the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos brought experience researching asbestos claims.

At the Central Pennsylvania Civil Law Clinic, she took on more responsibility as a certified legal intern, handling divorce actions, landlord-tenant disputes, and estate-planning matters under supervision. She followed cases from beginning to end and learned from the work other interns were doing, too.

“It gave me confidence that I didn’t have,” she said. “And that was a huge experience for me.”

An environmental law seminar with Professor John Dernbach, which included a project with a local community, gave her another chance to explore. She encourages students to use their electives, seminars and internships the same way, even if they already have a field in mind.

Lopez found that she enjoyed helping other students learn, too. Along with participating in the Women’s Law Caucus, she served as an academic success fellow for Professor Mary Kate Kearney’s torts courses. She enjoyed meeting with first-year students, and Kearney’s encouragement helped her recognize her own progress toward becoming an attorney. She urges students to get to know their professors and come to class prepared- connections and habits that can make speaking up feel more comfortable.

Lopez graduated cum laude in 2022, becoming the first attorney in her family. Their support has been a constant through school and into her career. She also remembers professors reminding her to make time for the people and interests she cared about outside law school, a perspective she’s carried into her working life.

Someday, she’d like to return to Widener Law Commonwealth to teach, bringing her corporate and regulatory experience into the classroom where her own interest began.

“I think I would also like to teach it at some point, because the professors who taught there really shaped me,” she said.

Interview conducted in Fall 2026.