Bio

Scott Theobald is a partner in the firm’s Phoenix and New York City offices, where his practice focuses on domestic and international corporate, securities and commercial transactions, corporate governance, real estate, and resolution of complex business disputes. During a career spanning three decades, Scott has successfully negotiated a wide variety of business deals and resolved disputes on behalf of corporate clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups. He has a well-deserved reputation for creativity and innovation, and, as a former engineer, he brings tremendous attention to detail to bear in every representation. He has deep practical experience with clients in a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, manufacturing and distribution, financial and professional services, real estate development, media and entertainment, computer hardware and software, environmental technology, and agriculture, among others. Scott earned JD and MBA degrees from Columbia University in the City of New York, where his legal studies were concentrated in corporate, securities and international law, and on the business side, in corporate finance, and financial accounting. He served as Managing Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review and worked in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs & Co. while still in school. After completing his formal education, he joined the venerable Phoenix law firm of Brown and Bain (now Perkins Coie), becoming a corporate partner only five years after graduating law school. One of his principal clients for many years was a premier global industrial and natural resource company. Theobald served as lead counsel in many of its merger & acquisition matters, on numerous large contracts for mining equipment and bulk chemical purchases, and in joint ventures involving other Fortune 500 industrial companies. He also monitored and helped manage the client’s worldwide litigation matters. Scott has represented a number of emerging growth companies whose businesses involve software applications and other means of commercializing the Internet, with e-commerce companies being a mainstay of his practice currently. Typical engagements have included fast-paced financing transactions (typically structured as “Regulation D” private securities offerings); strategic acquisitions; private equity and venture capital fund investments; and executive compensation. One of Scott's emerging growth clients grew in only a few years from a startup to become a New York Stock Exchange-traded company with a market capitalization of nearly $1.5 billion. He incorporated and advised the company during its early financing rounds while a name partner at the 15-lawyer securities and real estate boutique firm he co-founded in Phoenix. He also co-founded a boutique M&A advisory firm, which remains the premier institution of its kind in the Southwest. More recently, he serves as outside general counsel to several family offices and emerging growth companies.