Mr. Willis is a member of our Corporate Section and is head of our Real Estate and Commercial Finance Groups. He practices primarily in the areas of commercial transactions, negotiated acquisitions, corporate law, banking and commercial real estate.

Scott has counseled business clients in a variety of matters, including a $3 billion bank note securitization; a $250 million secured oil and gas revolving credit facility; numerous helicopter and vessel financings; the acquisition, merger and sale of numerous private and public companies; numerous high yield public bond offerings, numerous bank mergers and branch transactions; the acquisition of the Canal Place mixed-use development in New Orleans; the acquisition, development, financing, and sale of numerous hotels, grocery store chains, shopping centers and other commercial properties; the development, construction and financing of petrochemical refineries, LNG Storage facilities and underground storage facilities; and military base closures and redevelopments.

Scott graduated from Louisiana State University in 1980 and received his J.D. degree from LSU in 1983, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, and he also served as an associate editor of the Louisiana Law Review. Scott is a member of the LSU Law School Alumni Board of Trustees.

Scott is a member of the New Orleans, Louisiana State, and American Bar Associations.

He is the past chair of the ABA's Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section Committee on Legal Opinions, Vice Chairman of the ACREL Legal Opinions Committee and a member of the Law Firm Advisory Board of the Working Group on Legal Opinions.  He was a member of the drafting group for the ABA/ACREL Real Estate Opinion Letter Guidelines 38 REAL. PROP. PROB. & TR. J. 241 (2003). He is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the Louisiana Bankers Association's Bank Counsel Committee. He is also a member of the board of directors and Vice Chairman of the New Orleans Bureau of Governmental Research. He is the author of Article 9 Remedies in West's Louisiana Statutes Annotated Code of Civil Procedure. He has frequently lectured on commercial transactions and legal opinion issues. He has been ranked as one of the top lawyers in Louisiana practicing in the areas of banking and finance by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business and is named in The Best Lawyers in America 2005 - 2006 for expertise in Financial Institutions & Transaction Law.