About Adam K.
Adam K. Mortara has built a career that moves between the American courtroom and academic halls. He began his path in the sciences before shifting to the law, and that dual background shows in the steadiness of his work and the choices he has made. His resume reads like a steady climb: rigorous study, federal clerkships, a long stint in private litigation, and then a turn into civil and voting rights trial work.
He earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998. He also spent time at the University of Cambridge, where he holds an M.A., and earlier completed undergraduate study in chemistry at the University of Chicago. Those academic stops gave him an analytical grounding that would prove useful in complex litigation.
Mortara moved quickly into appellate and Supreme Court circles after law school. He served as a law clerk to a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2001. The following year he clerked at the United States Supreme Court. Those clerkships placed him at the center of federal litigation and appellate decisionmaking early in his career.
After his clerkships he entered private practice. He joined Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP as an associate in 2003 and later became a partner there in 2007. Around that time he also took on a role as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School in 2007, returning periodically to the classroom to teach and to engage with students on litigation practice and trial strategy. His work at Bartlit Beck covered complex civil litigation matters where trial preparation and appellate consideration often intersected.
In 2020 Mortara shifted his practice toward voting rights and civil rights litigation and began practicing at Lawfair LLC. He also became a door tenant at 3 Hare Court Chambers that same year, an arrangement that links U.S.-trained litigators with chambers in the United Kingdom. He is admitted to practice in Wisconsin and Illinois, and he has handled matters that require trial experience and appellate awareness.
Across his career Mortara has moved between teaching, clerking, and trial work without abandoning any of the strands. He brings appellate experience, trial practice, and classroom experience to his current role. He is currently a civil and voting rights trial lawyer at Lawfair LLC, admitted in Wisconsin and Illinois.
