Joan Orie Melvin was born in Pittsburgh, attended the University of Notre Dame, and the Duquesne University School of Law (1981). From 1981 to 1985 Melvin engaged in a private law practice, before she was appointed Magistrate for the City of Pittsburgh Municipal Courts, in 1985. As Chief Magistrate, Melvin established Pennsylvania’s first Domestic Violence Court in 1987.
In 1990, she was appointed Judge to a vacancy on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and later was elected to a full term in 1991. She was past President of the Allegheny County
Prison Board and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Vincentian Home and
as a member of the United Way Community Problem Solving Troubled Youth
Committee and STOP Violence Task Force.
Orie Melvin was elected to the Superior Court in November 1997. She was retained for another ten-year term in November 2007. In 2009 she ran a state-wide election and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.