Chip Mellor

William H. "Chip" Mellor (born December 31, 1950) serves as President and General Counsel of the Institute for Justice, which he co-founded. Mellor pursues constitutional litigation in four areas: economic liberty, property rights, school choice, and free speech.

Mellor received his B.A. from Ohio State University in 1973 and his J.D. from the University of Denver Law School in 1977. From 1979-1983, he practiced public interest law with Mountain States Legal Foundation in Denver. Following his time there, he served in the Ronald Reagan Administration as Deputy General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations in the United States Department of Energy.

From 1986 until 1991, Mellor served as president of the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank located in San Francisco, California. Under Mellor's leadership, the Institute commissioned and published books on civil rights, property rights, technology, and the First Amendment that would later serve as the Institute for Justice's long-term, strategic litigation blueprint.

In 1991, Clint Bolick and Chip Mellor founded the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit libertarian public interest law firm. Under Mellor's leadership, the Institute for Justice has litigated five U.S. Supreme Court cases, winning four of them. In addition, the organization helped pursue the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller case, in which the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use.