Scott Akin

Scott currently provides qualified, cost-efficient legal research, analysis, writing and editing support to help other attorneys, organizations and individuals by leveraging his legal qualifications in legal research, legal analysis, and legal writing along with his significant experience in journalism from community reporting to editing at The New York Times Co.

I can help by providing legal research for points and authorities that support pleadings, motions, and briefs; manage and craft discovery requests and conduct review; legal drafting, writing, and editing support for all court submissions, including appellate and amicus briefs.

I can also help with qualified editorial support and project management for peer and client communications in print and digital formats, including content strategy, content management, SEO, content writing, web analytics, and social media management with Hootsuite certifications in Platform Analytics and Social Media Marketing.

My development in law is a natural progression from my career in journalism: both roles require extensive interviewing, fact gathering, document review and data-mining, analysis and organizing that information into a compelling story. Likewise, both roles require dedication to detail, time management, planning and projecct management, as well as flexibility and rapid response to changing circumstances.

I'm a former staff editor with The New York Times Co. and seasoned journalist with exceptional experience in reporting, interviewing, analysis and editing across business sectors and cultures with legal skills. That experience provides extraordinary adaptability and an exceptionally broad knowledgebase, context and perspective when assessing factual nuances and applying law to facts.

State Bar of California Member No. 276281, I'm  also admitted to practice in U.S. District Court of California, Northern District; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for the Eleventh Circuit; and he is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs ( and the Medicaid Planning Network.

Scott succeeded on the 3-day California Bar on first sitting in February 2011. He also passed California’s First Year Law Student Exam and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam on first sitting.

Scott earned his Juris Doctor in January 2011 from Concord Law School, now part of Kaplan University, after an exceptional career in journalism culminating with 

10 years as a Staff Editor at The New York Times News Service. He worked full time concurrently while successfully completing law school. 

His journalism experience in the U.S. and abroad included general-interest news publications as well as at business, professional and technology news publications. His editorial experience spans community news to The New York Times; local business to Wall Street to international foreign investment and trade; local health care systems to information technology; and the full range of government agencies at all levels: municipal, state and federal. He’s worked as a reporter, assignment editor, news editor, copy editor, page design editor, photo editor, managing editor, writing and editing coach, and research project manager.

Exceptionally broad journalism experience interviewing, fact gathering, researching and analysis covering just about every topic at one time or another are skills that prove directly relevant to law. They provide unique experiential context and perspective when dealing with people, businesses, government agencies, and in distinguishing factual conditions to which the law is applied.

His experience includes living and working in Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, New York, London, Munich, Kyiv, Sofia, Guam, Panama and Nicaragua.

Scott's language skills include coversational Spanish, traveller's Russian/Ukrainian, and once-upon-a-time, German.