Scott Davis, a leading lawyer who taught courses related to mergers and acquisitions as the Law School’s first Professor from Practice, died April 7. He was 68.

Before joining the Law School full time in 2016, Mr. Davis was a partner at Mayer Brown in Chicago, where he was lead lawyer on some of the country’s largest and most important mergers and acquisitions. He was formerly the firm’s US head of mergers and acquisitions and a practice leader for the firm’s corporate and securities practice. While at Mayer Brown, Mr. Davis served for several years as a lecturer at both the Booth School of Business and the Law School, where he taught Mergers & Acquisitions and Buyouts.

When the Law School created the Professor from Practice role as part of an expansion in experiential learning several years ago, Davis was a natural choice. He developed a hands-on offering and joined the Law School’s faculty full time. He retired last year.

“Scott was enormously generous with his time in getting to know our students, sharing his expertise with them, and offering them career advice,” said Dean Thomas J. Miles, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics. “He brought a wealth of high-level, sophisticated practice experience in an important area of law, and he helped our students understand the logic of transactions and their legal frameworks. We are deeply saddened by his passing.”

Added Deputy Dean Richard McAdams: “The courses Scott taught for us and the special way that he taught them greatly enriched our business law curriculum. His shoes will be difficult to fill.”

Davis, a 1968 graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, received a BA from Yale in 1972 and a JD in 1976 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review. He joined Mayer Brown as an associate in 1977 after serving as a law clerk for Judge Luther Swygert of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He became a partner in Mayer Brown’s litigation practice in 1983 and switched mid-career to the corporate & securities practice.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.