Scott Bales

Hon. Scott Bales served on the Arizona Supreme Court for fourteen years, including as Chief Justice from July 2014 through July 2019. As a member of the Conference of Chief Justices, he served on its Board of Directors, chaired its Education Committee, and was a member of the Amicus Brief Review Team. Justice Bales also chaired the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA’s Judical Division. He currently chairs the ABA’s Council for the Section on Legal Education and is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute.

Chief Justice Bales has received numerous awards for his work as a jurist, including the Arizona State Bar’s James A. Walsh Outstanding Jurist Award (2019), the American Judges Association’s Chief Justice Richard Holmes Award of Merit (2018), and the Judicial Management Institute’s Ernest C. Friesen Award of Excellence (2018).

Before taking the bench, Chief Justice Bales practiced law for nearly twenty years as a private and public lawyer. He was a partner in Phoenix firms that later became Osborn Maledon P.A. and Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. He was Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999‐2001, and he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development, a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, and a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General. He authored briefs for scores of appeals, participated in 27 oral arguments before state and federal appellate courts, and was elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He also worked on internal investigations for public and private clients, including the Arizona Senate, and on civil and criminal matters related to Arizona’s tribal lands.

Justice Bales’ broad ranging experience makes him exceptionally qualified to assist parties and their counsel by serving as an arbitrator or mediator, conducting moot courts, or participating in internal investigations. 

• J.D., Harvard Law School (Magna Cum Laude, 1983)
• M.A., Economics, Harvard University (1980)
• B.A., Economics and History, Michigan State University, (Summa Cum Laude, 1978)

• American Law Institute, Member (elected 2007), Council, 2014‐present
• American Academy of Appellate Lawyers (elected 2004)
• ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, Council, 2018‐present; chair, 2020‐present
• Committee on Federal‐State Jurisdiction to the Judicial Conference of the United States, 2015‐2019
• Appellate Judges Conference, ABA Judicial Division, Executive Committee, 2008‐2016; chair 2014‐2015
• Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Adjunct Professor 
• University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, Adjunct Professor
• American Inns of Court Foundation, Board of Trustees, 2006‐2010
• Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Advisory Committee on Rules of Practice and Internal Operating Procedures, 2001‐2005
• Lawyer Representative, Ninth Circuit Judicial

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