Spencer G. Scharff

Spencer G. Scharff represents and advises businesses, nonprofits, and individuals in complex litigation in state and federal courts. He is admitted to practice in California, Arizona, New York, and the District of Columbia, and has extensive experience in high-stakes commercial litigation, regulatory disputes, and appellate advocacy.

Before founding Scharff PC, Spencer was a member of Goddard Law Office PLC, where he practiced alongside former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. He previously practiced at a boutique litigation firm in Phoenix, where he regularly represented one of the nation’s largest Class I freight railroad companies, and in the Los Angeles office of an international law firm, where his work included matters before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Spencer has also served in the chambers of three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following law school, he clerked for the Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, who joined the Ninth Circuit in 1979 and served as Chief Judge from 2000 to 2007. He later clerked for the Hon. Andrew D. Hurwitz, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2012 after Judge Schroeder announced her intent to assume senior status. During law school, Spencer externed for the Hon. Arthur Alarcón in his chambers in downtown Los Angeles.

Spencer earned his bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn, he received a full-tuition scholarship to attend the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude. While at Arizona, he served as Executive Note Editor of the Arizona Law Review and as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy.