Scott Bales is one of the most popular and richest Justice who was born on July 20, 1956 in Elkhart, Indiana, United States.
Following law school, Bales clerked for the Office of the Solicitor General in 1983. He went on to clerk for Judge Joseph T. Sneed III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 1984 to 1985 he clerked for Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the United States Supreme Court.
Following his clerkships, Justice Bales was in private practice at the Phoenix law firm of Meyer, Hendricks, Victor, Osborn & Maledon from 1985 to 1994. He then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 1995 to 1999, including service as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development from 1998 to 1999. Justice Bales then served as Solicitor General for the State of Arizona from 1999 to 2001. He returned to private practice as a partner at Lewis and Roca from 2001 until his appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court in 2005.
Following his 1974 graduation from White Pigeon High School, Justice Bales graduated cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Omicron Delta Epsilon with a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University in 1978. He graduated from Harvard University with an Master of Arts in Economics in 1980. Bales earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1983. While at Harvard Law School, he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
