Teaching
Teaching Philosophy
My mission is to empower students to confidently apply foundational lawyering skills in practice. Law students need to overcome challenges to grow, and they are best equipped to do so when they are guided by a patient and empathetic coach who transparently communicates high expectations, uplifts them when they struggle, and recognizes them when they succeed. I aim to be that coach.
Student Testimonials
Professor Mortellaro is an absolutely incredible professor. I really loved his Fundamentals of Lawyering class – the energy he brings to the classroom makes it exciting and fun to learn from him. You can tell that Professor Mortellaro really cares about his students and is more than happy to answer and all questions. I enjoyed the PowerPoint material during class coupled with class activities. I thought this was a really nice way to structure the class to keep us engaged. I also really appreciated Professor Mortellaro taking the time to provide feedback on our written work throughout the semester, and to offer multiple one-on-one conferences with him to discuss assignments or anything else. Lastly, I appreciated how clear and direct Professor Mortellaro was about assignments and expectations. He is very organized and thorough and as a student juggling many classes, this was greatly appreciated! Any first year student (or any student at all!) would be lucky to be one of his students. Thanks for a great year and for all your help!
Professor Mortellaro has a great teaching style that made me feel welcomed and challenged. All of his critiques were helpful and fair. He was always willing to help outside of class and even helped provide me with additional material to improve my writing skills. Learning legal writing can be difficult, however I never felt overwhelmed with his help.
Prof. Mortellaro made my first semester of law school feel less scary. He consistently checked in, provided the material in a way that was accessible, and gave us numerous at-bats with applying what we learned before the memos. His feedback on the partial memo was thoughtful and useful. I always felt supported and felt comfortable asking any questions. Though [the Lawyering Skills course] is challenging, Prof. Mortellaro, I believe, set us up for success by encouraging us in the “productive struggle” of research and writing and helped us to feel confident in our work throughout the process. I feel extremely grateful to have had him as my professor.
By far the most effective professor I’ve had. He didn’t hide the ball on what he expected. He maintained high expectations of us the whole way through while encouraging us and keeping positive. I considered myself a strong writer before this course, but now I feel very confident in my writing skills, particularly my legal writing skills. In-class exercises were extremely effective and feedback was very helpful and critical without being discouraging or over-critical. He went out of his way to provide resources for us for [the course] as well as resources to help us with law school in general.
Professor Mortellaro is one of the best professors/instructors I have ever had. I know it is not customary to give legal writing professors tenure, but this man deserves it. Words cannot even express the positive impact he has had on my law school experience (and that of my classmates). He is highly intelligent, makes information very accessible to all, and is genuinely a kind and compassionate human being. He always made (and continues to make) himself available to us if we needed to discuss anything and went ABOVE AND BEYOND anything a professor should be expected to do. After having had Professor Mortellaro as my legal writing professor, I feel like I can take on law school with confidence and positivity. All professors/instructors should take note—his class was a masterclass in teaching.