Stephen Mortellaro joined Catholic Law in 2022 and teaches in the Lawyering Skills Program. He began teaching in 2017 at The George Washington University Law School, where he taught first-year legal writing and fundamentals of lawyering courses, upper-level scholarly writing courses, and LL.M. thesis courses. At the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, Professor Mortellaro taught first-year legal writing and lawyering courses and the law school’s upper-level Writing Fellows Seminar. He also directed the law school’s Writing Center, co-developed a new lawyering skills curriculum, and managed faculty teaching in the lawyering program. Professor Mortellaro was voted runner-up for Maryland Carey Law’s Professor of the Year in 2021.

Before his career in law teaching, Professor Mortellaro practiced voting rights law at organizations including FairVote, Project Vote, and Voters Initiative. His work included enforcing the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, advocating for election reform legislation, and managing national voter education projects. He was also appointed to the Montgomery County Right to Vote Task Force and served from 2013 to 2015. In addition to his voting rights work, Professor Mortellaro was a Policy Associate for the Montgomery County Renters Alliance. Before entering law practice, he worked in educational and environmental lobbying in Florida. Throughout his career, he has served on several nonprofit and community organization boards. Professor Mortellaro's scholarly interests include voting rights and political law, legal education, and legal writing and reasoning.

Professional Research and Writing

Stephen Mortellaro, Equalizing the Political Rights of Renters and Homeowners, 34 Journal of Law and Politics 165 (2019)

Stephen Mortellaro, The Unconstitutionality of the Federal Ban on Noncitizen Voting and Congressionally-imposed Voter Qualifications, 63 Loyola Law Review 447 (2017)