Scott Lindlaw

Scott Lindlaw is a Managing Director in the San Francisco office of Sard Verbinnen & Co. Scott counsels clients on preparing for and responding to data incidents, and across a broad range of other media, crisis, and investor issues. His data-incident clients include companies in the hardware, software, financial services, health care, retail and real estate sectors, as well as law and private equity firms.

Scott is an attorney and veteran journalist. Before joining SVC, Scott practiced intellectual property and cybersecurity law at the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. In addition to his work on patent and copyright cases, several of which went to trial, he edited Orrick’s trade secrets blog and wrote extensively about data-breach litigation. He maintained an active pro bono practice, and continues to volunteer at New Door Ventures, a non-profit providing skill-building, individual support and jobs to disadvantaged young adults. He also serves on the board of directors of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to advancing free speech and more open and accountable government.

Prior to his legal career, Scott was a reporter for The Associated Press for 16 years. He served for four years as an AP White House correspondent, covering President George W. Bush’s first term, including the events of September 11 and the Iraq war; covered the statehouses in Providence, Rhode Island, and Sacramento, California; was part of a team nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for disaster coverage; and won The Associated Press Managing Editors’ Award for a series on Pat Tillman, the former NFL player killed by his fellow Army Rangers in Afghanistan. Scott also reported on the criminal and civil trials of O.J. Simpson.

He earned his J.D. and his master’s degree in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and received a B.A. in English with a minor in public policy from the State University of New York at Buffalo.