First-Year Fellow Mentor: Judge John Mott '81

The First-Year Fellows program is a unique opportunity for first-year students to engage meaningfully in public policy early in their Dartmouth careers. Each year, around 20 students are selected and placed in fellowships with Dartmouth alumni in Washington, D.C., who are willing to take on a significant mentoring role.

 “Serving as a Rockefeller Center mentor has been an opportunity, a privilege, and a joy.  It has provided me the opportunity to give back to Dartmouth College for the education, experiences, and lifelong friendships for which I will always be grateful.  Mentorship has also allowed me the privilege of working with the fabulous Rockefeller Center staff in training and preparing young leaders.  And it has been a joy to mentor enthusiastic and bright students, to impart to them a sense of fairness and justice, and to help launch them with the understanding that they can make the world a better place through the law.” – Judge John Mott ’81, First-Year Fellow mentor since 2008.

First-Year Fellow Mentor: Judge John Mott ’81 

John Mott graduated from Dartmouth in 1981. At Dartmouth, Judge Mott majored in History and was a member of the Nordic Ski team. Between his undergraduate experience and law school, Mott spent seven years teaching high school history, traveled in South America, and lived and worked in D.C and Japan. During this time, Judge Mott decided to pursue law as an avenue to help make a difference.

After graduating from Northeastern Law in 1988, Judge Mott worked as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service, specializing as a defense attorney in his final years. Following his time at PDS, he began work in 1995 as a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section at the Justice Department, where he prosecuted violations of federal statutes that prohibit hate crime, police brutality and other civil rights violations. By 1998, Judge Mott was appointed as the Acting Chief of the Criminal Section.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Mott as an Associate Judge at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where he has served since.

Judge Mott has mentored the following First-Year Fellows:

Claire Rafson ’19

Kelsey Flower ’18

Jasper Bingham '17

Robert Scales '16

David Wylie '15

Adrian Ferrari '14

Lindsay Brewer '13

Jessica ("Jessi") Merry '12

Lauren Bowman '11