Scott Bales

Scott Bales LLC

Scott Bales served on the Arizona Supreme Court for fourteen years, including as Chief Justice from July 2014 until July 2019. After retiring from the Court, he was the Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System through July 2020. He now consults on appeals and internal investigations and serves as a neutral.

Justice Bales serves on the Council of the American Law Institute and the Board of Trustees for the National Conference of Bar Examiners. He previously chaired both the Council of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and the ABA’s Appellate Judges Conference. Justice Bales has often taught courses at the law schools at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. Before joining the Court, he practiced law in Arizona for nearly 20 years.

He was a partner in Phoenix firms that later became Osborn Maledon and Lewis Roca. As Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999-2001, he handled major appeals, oversaw the enforcement of Arizona election laws, and supervised the preparation of legal opinions. Justice Bales also was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Policy Development, a federal prosecutor, and a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General. He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and for Ninth Circuit Judge Joseph T. Sneed III. After graduating from Michigan State University, he received a master’s degree in economics and his law degree from Harvard.