Speakers
William H. Mellor
President and general counsel, Institute for Justice
William H. (“Chip”) Mellor is president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice (IJ), which he co-founded. Under his leadership, IJ has litigated or helped pursue four landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases in a little over six years. From 1986 until 1991, Mr. Mellor was president of the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, and prior to his time there, he served in the Reagan administration as deputy general counsel for legislation and regulations in the Department of Energy. He co-authored, with Bob Levy of the Cato Institute, The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom. He has written for many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Forbes, and has appeared on numerous broadcasts on ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. Mr. Mellor also launched the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago and is a board member of the Property and Environment Research Center, the nation’s oldest and largest institute dedicated to original research that brings market principles to resolving environmental problems. After graduating from Ohio State University, Mr. Mellor earned his J.D. at the University of Denver School of Law.
