Scott Bales

Scott Bales joined the Arizona Supreme Court in 2005 and became Chief Justice in 2014. He regularly teaches courses as an adjunct professor at the law schools at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. He is also a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and formerly served as the chair of the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA’s Judicial Division and on the board of directors for the Conference of Chief Justices. Before his appointment to the Court, Justice Bales worked at Lewis and Roca LLP from 2001-2005, served as Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999-2001, and, was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1994-1999. He also was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development and a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General. Justice Bales earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Michigan State University, an M.A. in economics from Harvard University, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor on the Harvard Law Review from 1981 to 1983. He also was a Teaching Fellow from 1979 to 1983 at Harvard University and received the Allyn Young Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economics in 1980 and 1981. After graduating from law school, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Judge Joseph T. Sneed III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice.