Reid DeChant, Founder and Trial Attorney

About Reid

Reid found the courtroom at 16 years old. Facing a speeding ticket, he took it to trial, cross-examined the officer, and came prepared with exhibits and legal arguments for the judge. He learned early how to find the weak spots in the state’s case, and he’s been building on that ever since.

Reid grew up in Arizona and moved to Denver for law school. He started his career at the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office, defending people facing charges of every kind. That’s where he learned what the rest of his career is built on: the system is good at judging people by a single moment, and the way to push back is to tell the person’s whole story. Whether he’s negotiating with a prosecutor, arguing to a judge or standing in front of a jury, Reid’s job is to make people care about the person beside him.

He founded DeChant Law in 2023 to build a firm around that idea: built for the courtroom, and prepared for trial from day one.

While Reid doesn’t really have spare time because he is always working (mostly by choice), if he isn’t working he can be found playing sports with his sons and being the best dad and husband he can!

Trial and Courtroom Experience

Reid believes in taking a case to trial when a fair resolution isn’t on the table, and in preparing every case as if it will get there. He trains constantly, traveling to trial advocacy programs across the country and bringing those strategies home to Colorado to train local attorneys. Trial Lawyers College taught him to reverse roles with his client, so he can tell the client’s story to a jury from the inside. Reid is a well known trial attorney. This means prosecutors know he is not afraid to take a case the distance which often results in more favorable outcomes for his clients.

Practice Focus

Reid focuses on DUI and impaired-driving defense, because of the depth of science behind these cases other attorneys don’t bother learning gives him an edge. On the surface, a DUI can look closed and shut on the BAC number alone. Reid treats that number as the tip of the iceberg.

• He has completed the same Standardized Field Sobriety Test course police officers take, so he can evaluate how the tests were given and challenge them at trial. He has completed the SFST Instructor course as well and often trains other lawyers how to attack these tests.
• He also completed the ARIDE course, or Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement training which are tests utilized by law enforcement for drug impairment.
• He is designated by the American Chemical Society as an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist. He earned that through a weeks-long hands-on lab course in the blood-alcohol, DUI-D and drug testing methods used by labs in Colorado and across the country.
• He is board certified in DUI defense by DUIDLA, which is only provided to a select few who have displayed vigor in representing impaired driving clients, taking DUI cases to trial, and exhibiting extreme depths of DUI legal knowledge by passing a written examination.

Education and Bar Admissions

1. 2017

   Colorado State Courts

   Admitted to practice in Colorado State Courts.

2. 2026

   Federal Court

   Admitted to practice in Federal Court.

Memberships and Recognition

• Board Certified in DUI Defense by DUI Defense Lawyers Association
• Lifetime member, DUI Defense Lawyers Association
• Lifetime member, National College for DUI Defense
• Lifetime member, NORML; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
• ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, American Chemical Society
• Top 40 Under 40, The National Trial Lawyers, since 2024
• Superlawyers Rising Star, since 2024
• Lifetime member, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar. Presenter at the CCDB annual DUI conference every year since 2023.