Mel Orchard III

Mel C. Orchard, III is a partner at The Spence Law Firm in Jackson, Wyoming, where he represents people harmed in motor vehicle and trucking crashes, industrial and workplace incidents, defective product cases, medical negligence and civil rights matters, including families who have lost a loved one. He tries cases nationally and holds law licenses in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and Iowa.

Over more than three decades in the courtroom, Orchard has been part of record civil jury verdicts in several states, and his clients’ recoveries total in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the firm. He is board certified as a trial attorney by both the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the American Board of Trial Advocates, and he serves as president of ABOTA’s Wyoming Chapter. He has sat on the American Association for Justice Board of Governors since 2005 and is a past president of the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association.

His invitation-only memberships include the Inner Circle of Advocates, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Summit Council. He spent more than a decade as a senior faculty member at the Trial Lawyers College, helped found Trial School, and chaired the Wyoming Commission for Judicial Conduct and Ethics during six years of service on it. In 2021 he received the Melvin Belli Society Award and the NBTA President’s Award. Orchard earned a finance degree from Washington State University and was student body president at the University of Wyoming College of Law. He also takes on pro bono work through Lawyers and Advocates for Wyoming.