Spence, Gerry

Spence, (Gerald Leonard) Gerry (1929–  ) lawyer, author; born in Laramie, Wyo. An honors graduate from the University of Wyoming Law School (1952), he was a county prosecuting attorney in Wyoming (1954–62) and then a partner in various Wyoming law firms (1962–78) before forming Spence, Moriarty & Schuster in Jackson, Wyo., in 1978. During his early years in private practice he concentrated on representing insurance companies, but eventually he took to representing people in a variety of personal liability or criminal cases. Among his more publicized cases that involved large settlements for his clients were the verdict against Kerr-McGee in the Karen Silkwood case on behalf of her children, and a verdict against McDonald's on behalf of a family-owned ice cream company; among his more celebrated defense cases were the acquittal for Imelda Marcos and the acquittal for Randy Weaver in the Idaho standoff case where a federal agent was killed. Spence did not lose a jury case after 1969. He lectured at law schools and conducted seminars for various legal organizations around the U.S.A. and is the author of several books including his autobiography, Gunning for Justice (1982), With Justice for None (1989), and From Freedom to Slavery, The Rebirth of Tyranny in America (1993).