Thomas J. Mortati

My name is Tom Mortati. I’m one of the supervising attorneys in the litigation department here at Harding Mazzotti. And I handle all kinds of cases here at the firm. From medical malpractice cases to product liability, catastrophic crashes, aviation cases, basically you name it – I’ve pretty much handled those cases here.

We have people that had something bad happen in their lives. I can’t change that. I don’t know that you truly ever get closure from some of these unfortunate and very traumatic events that happen in people’s lives. But the best thing about what I get to do is I get to help them. Ultimately, I have people that I believe I’ve been able to put in a better place and on a better path for their future.

At Harding Mazzotti, we have a team of all types of attorneys. We have trial attorneys, we have workers compensation attorneys, we have social security disability attorneys. That gives us the ability to handle various aspects of what’s going on in their lives because they could have a work site construction case that both there’s a worker’s comp aspect to it, but there’s also this personal injury portion. If in fact their case is going to be litigated all the way through, we will be there for them because we know how to do it and we’ve done it before.

I think one of the things that I bring to the firm and to our practice on behalf of our clients that some others might not have is I was on the other side. I was on the defense side of the world for 26 years of my career. So, I know exactly how the insurance companies evaluate cases. I know how they defend cases. I know everything about what they do and how they do it and why they do, which makes, I think, me a better attorney as someone representing injured people now. And the defense attorneys in the area and the insurance companies, they all know who I am because I worked with them all previously.

We don’t just serve the greater capital region. You know, we have offices in Albany certainly. We have a Rochester office. We have Plattsburgh. We have offices in Vermont. We have offices in Massachusetts now. But we go out into the communities, not just here in the Capital Region, but elsewhere. In June of this year, I did a bike helmet event up in Pottsdam, New York, 4 hours from here. We had hundreds of kids come along. We had the police department involved. We even had local media come to do a story on it. But that’s what we do here at Harding Maxzotti. From the Uber Vouchers on New Year’s Eve to all kinds of other community events, Harding Mazzotti is invested in the community because we represent the community. I think that’s one of the the the coolest things about the firm.

I enjoy what I do for a living. I get the opportunity to practice law with a group of people that I look forward to coming to work with every day. I get up in the morning, I want to go to work because the people I work with are fantastic and we have a good time doing a lot of hard work and stressful work, but we enjoy each other and we support each other.

Thomas J. Mortati – Supervising Attorney
Admitted in New York and Connecticut

Tom Mortati Best Lawyers

Tom Mortati joined Harding Mazzotti, LLP in the Fall of 2017 and brought with him 26 years of civil defense litigation and trial experience. In August 2019 he obtained a record $7.436 million verdict in St. Lawrence County Supreme Court for a medical malpractice case involving a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal). This was also reported to be one of the largest verdicts in the nation for such a case. The jury award was nearly ten times what the insurance company offered.

In June 2025 Tom was awarded the Daniel Mahoney Memorial Award by the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association presented annually by the CDTLA to an attorney for “demonstrating outstanding commitment and service to his clients, the bar and profession, and to the perpetuation of the work of the ‘Shirt Sleeve’ lawyer.”

Tom has had several multi-million dollar settlements in his time at HM as follows:

  • $6.75 million settlement for a wrongful death case involving a helicopter crash;
  • $1.75 million settlement for a medical malpractice case resulting in stillbirth;
  • $1.25 million settlement for a products liability/wrongful death case involving a wood processing machine;
  • $4.0 million settlement for a medical malpractice case involving a failure to diagnose a thoracic fracture resulting in paraplegia in a 78 year old;
  • $1.8 million settlement for a products liability case involving a riding mower;
  • $3.5 million settlement in medical malpractice case involving failure to diagnose lung cancer;
  • $2.1 million settlement for a motorcycle crash case that resulted in a leg amputation;
  • $1.95 million settlement for a product liability case resulting in amputation;
  • $2.25 million settlement for a wrongful death case from a motor vehicle crash.
  • $4.1 million settlement in product liability case resulting in hand amputation.
  • $1.5 million settlement in wrongful death/medical malpractice case.
  • $1.3 million settlement for surgical malpractice case.
  • $2.875 million settlement for a medical malpractice case involving a failure to diagnose spinal epidural hematoma.

Tom tried nearly 100 cases to verdict in courts in over 20 counties in New York State from Brooklyn (Kings County) to the Canadian border and nearly all counties in between, as well as in Connecticut, before joining HM in 2017.  He has tried several cases for HM clients since – winning each case with jury awards well in excess of what the insurance companies offered.

Tom was prominently featured on a two-hour Dateline NBC special (“The Accused”) that aired in 2016 and again in 2017 and airs annually on Oxygen Network.  The Dateline episode showcased his extensive work on a unique civil case that had a companion homicide investigation. He was also featured in an episode of Deadline Crime with Tamron Hall (“Home Alone”) that aired in 2017 on Investigation Discovery Channel and many times since and was also featured in a two-part HBO documentary that aired in 2019 (“Who Killed Garrett Phillips?”). Tom was also featured on a true crime podcast with Roberta Glass True Crime Report in 2020 (“Who Killed Garrett Phillips: Solved!”) and again on follow-up episodes in 2022 and 2023.  Tom was also interviewed in 2021 on The Lab True Crime Podcast hosted by Josh Diaz – all from his extensive work in this high profile, law enforcement/homicide case where he worked together with investigators from multiple agencies. Some of Tom’s deposition work from the case was also featured in a 20/20 episode on ABC (“Rear Window”) that aired in 2016. Tom was also featured in a November 2022 episode of The Lab True Crime Podcast hosted by Josh Diaz to discuss the Delphi Murders and on a 2022 episode of the Roberta Glass True Crime Report to discuss the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial. Tom was again a guest on the Roberta Glass True Crime Report most recently in August 2024 to discuss the Karen Read murder trial and related civil case brought by the victim’s family.

Tom graduated from Fordham University in 1988 and Albany Law School in 1991 where he served as Associate Editor on the Albany Law School Journal of Science and Technology. Tom began his legal career in New York City as an associate with a large, multinational firm before moving to the Albany area permanently in 1993. He was a founding partner at Burke, Scolamiero, Mortati & Hurd, LLP, a personal injury defense firm where he worked for over 20 years defending and trying high exposure cases in the fields of medical malpractice, law enforcement, construction and products liability, among many others, and he litigated cases in both state and federal court.

Tom is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut as well as the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York, the District of Connecticut, as well as at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits and at the United States Supreme Court. He is a past President of the Capital District Trial Lawyers Association and has lectured for the New York State Bar Association, New York State Trial Lawyers Association and Capital District Trial Lawyers Association among others over the years. He achieved the top Martindale Hubbell rating of AV from his peers since 2002 and was also named in Super Lawyers for medical malpractice several years in a row. Tom is also a member of the NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers and he was also inducted into the National Trial Lawyers Civil Plaintiff top 100 in 2019.

Super Lawyers attorney badge for Thomas J. MortatiThe National Trail Lawyers Top 100     Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year 2026 Badge - Thomas Mortati - Medical Malpractice Law - Plaintiffs

Direct Phone Line: 518-556-3401
Toll-Free Office: 1-855-782-4251
Email: [email protected]

“. . . Tom has been absolutely amazing. He is very professional, kind, and caring. Tom is on top of everything. His response time to emails and phone calls is impeccable. I feel like I’m good hands with Tom. I trust him and I think very highly of him. I highly recommend Tom Mortati!”

Cynthia K., Five Star Google Review