Scott W. Fennel.

Scott W. Fennel is an entertainment, intellectual property, technology, and M&A advisor who pairs front-line deal experience with the classroom. He guides buyers and sellers through the full transaction lifecycle — valuation, deal structuring, due diligence, negotiation, and closing — across technology, media, and content, on deals ranging from early-stage startups to transactions exceeding $1 billion.

Scott’s legal roots run deep in entertainment and intellectual property. He began his career as a litigator at a large Los Angeles law firm, advised a U.S. Senate subcommittee on the drafting of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and represented major U.S. record labels and film studios in trade-secret and complex IP matters. He built global anti-piracy, anti-counterfeiting, and brand-extension programs for global franchises, and co-tried a Hollywood case of first impression on likeness and image rights. That grounding in rights of publicity, likeness, and image now bears directly on the questions AI-generated content raises for digital platforms. For 13 years, Scott has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he co-created and directs a semester-long capstone at the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship.

Scott currently leads sell-side and buy-side M&A as an M&A and IP consultant, and advises venture-capital and private-equity firms on portfolio strategy and deal structuring. Over his career, he has co-founded and sold companies, stood up a $1.6 billion operating business from zero, and led operational turnarounds and exits — giving him firsthand knowledge of how deals are actually negotiated, structured, diligenced, and closed, not merely how they read in a treatise. Notable engagements include co-leading a three-year greenfield build for Belron (U.S. brand: Safelite AutoGlass), standing up a new operating company from zero to 12,000 employees and $1.6 billion in revenue within 24 months; architecting the Western U.S. expansion of a now-national law firm from 1.5 to 65 attorneys across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas in roughly 30 months; leading the turnaround and sale of Serious Music’s five-label portfolio; and guiding the operational turnaround and sale of a school-lunch software company to a public strategic acquirer, delivering the founder a roughly $25 million exit.

Scott also works at the intersection of law and applied AI. His three decades in rights of publicity, likeness, and image speak directly to the IP questions AI-generated content raises, and his teaching practice — translating dense legal and transactional reasoning into structured, teachable frameworks — is the same skill required to shape how a subject-matter AI model reasons within a domain.

• Entertainment Law
• Intellectual Property & Trade Secrets
• Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
• Deal Structuring & Negotiation
• Due Diligence
• Rights of Publicity, Likeness & Image
• Licensing & Brand Extension
• Copyright Policy (DMCA)
• Legal Education & Subject-Matter Training

• J.D., Pepperdine University School of Law — Malibu, California / London, United Kingdom
• B.B.A., Finance & English, Abilene Christian University — Outstanding Senior Male award; scholarship recipient
• Certificate in Finance, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — London, United Kingdom
• Certificate in Comparative Law, University of Oxford — Oxford, United Kingdom (coursework affiliated with LSE and Oxford; concurrent work at the House of Lords on European monetary and currency convergence)