Goodwin Partner Scott French, from Los Angeles and Santa Monica, practices in Technology, Private Equity, and more.

Scott Y. French

Partner

Scott French is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology group and a trusted advisor to high-growth technology companies, founders, and leading venture capital firms. He counsels clients through their most critical and transformative transactions, including intricate company formations, venture and growth equity financings, complex secondary transactions, strategic spinoffs, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and public offerings. Scott also advises on corporate governance and securities law matters across all stages of the corporate lifecycle.

Scott is particularly recognized for his deep experience advising LLCs and navigating the sophisticated structural and governance considerations unique to high-growth LLC startups.

Clients value his responsiveness, commercial judgment, and ability to execute complex transactions.

Experience

Scott has extensive experience representing market-leading companies and top-tier investors in frontier and emerging technology sectors, including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, biotech, cybersecurity, defense technology, fintech, consumer platforms, and climate and energy innovation.

Scott’s representative company clients include: Aurascape, Bitwarden, Contextual AI, Fashionphile, Heart Aerospace, Kitman Labs, NavigateAI, Nudge, Traversal, Upscale AI and Yassir.

Scott’s representative venture capital clients include: a16z, Founders Fund, Greycroft, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Saints Capital.

Representative Matters

  • Advised top-tier venture capital firms in high-profile portfolio company investments across the technology sector, including in Anduril, Anthropic, Blockaid, Chainguard, Clay, Cyera, Day.ai, Decagon, Decart, DolarApp, ElevenLabs, Fireworks, Hex, Intenseye, Juniper Square, Listen Labs, Mercury, Pika, Rox, Stripe, Waymo, Whatnot, and xAI
  • Upscale AI in its various equity financings led by Mayfield, Maverick Silicon, Tiger Global, Premji Invest and Xora Innovation
  • Traversal in its Series A equity financing led by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital
  • Nudge in its Series A equity financing led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks
  • Aurascape in its various equity financings led by Mayfield, Menlo Ventures and Celesta Capital
  • Bitwarden in its growth equity financing led by PSG
  • Simpplr in its Series D equity financing led by Sapphire Ventures
  • Fashionphile in its growth equity financing led by Newspring Capital
  • Heart Aerospace in its various equity financings led by EQT, Lowercarbon Capital and Breakthrough Energy Ventures
  • Lumanu in its equity financing
  • Kitman Labs in its equity and debt financings
  • Hudson Pacific Properties in various venture and ESG investment matters
  • Fabletics (f/k/a TechStyle) in its equity and convertible notes financings*
  • Savage X Fenty in its equity and convertible notes financings*
  • PURE Property Management in its growth equity financing by Level Equity*
  • A-Frame Brands and its joint venture subsidiaries in their venture financings*
  • Bruin Biometrics in its growth equity financing by Arjo*
  • MOD Pizza in its growth equity financing led by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice*
  • Beautycounter in its growth equity financing led by Mousse Partners*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

  • Envato in its sale to Shutterstock (recipient of the M&A Atlas Awards’ Cross Border M&A Deal of the Year (Mid-Market))
  • Upscale AI in its spinoff from Auradine
  • Amyris in its financial restructuring
  • Aurascape in its spinoff from Auradine
  • Auradine in its acquisition of Wovra
  • American Battery Solutions in its sale to Komatsu
  • Pixomondo in its sale to Sony Pictures Entertainment
  • Bitwarden in its acquisition of Passwordless.dev
  • Simpplr in its acquisition of Socrates.ai
  • Zenda in its sale to Incomm Payments
  • Fashionphile in its brand and asset acquisition of LXR
  • Fashionphile in its acquisition of the business of Two Authenticators
  • Beautycounter in its sale to the Carlyle Group*
  • Blue Bite in its sale to Markem-Imaje, a subsidiary of the Dover Corporation*
  • Prysm Collective in its sale, alongside Halon and Lux Machina, to the NEP Group*
  • Digital Room in its sale to H.I.G. Capital*
  • Exactor in its sale to Intuit*
  • A-Frame Brands in its various joint venture transactions, including Kinlò with Naomi Osaka, and Proudly with Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union*
  • Fabletics in its Yitty by Lizzo joint venture transaction*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

  • A technology-focused defense, intelligence, security, and infrastructure engineering company in its initial public offering*
  • A US national fitness company in its initial public offering*
  • An energy infrastructure REIT in its initial public offering*
  • A leading global alternative investment manager in various equity and debt financings*
  • A leading global gaming and resort company in various equity and debt financings*
  • A leading data-center REIT in various equity and debt financings*
  • A hotel and lodging REIT in various equity financings*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Professional Experience

Scott’s legal counsel is informed by a multidisciplinary background that includes prior experience as a CPA and financial auditor at Deloitte, a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and in-house legal counsel at Newegg. This experience enables him to deliver commercially pragmatic, business-oriented advice to founders, boards, and investors.

Credentials

Education

MBA2012

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

JD2006

New York University School of Law

BA2000

University of California, Los Angeles

Admissions

Bars

  • California