Ajay K. Mehrotra

Ajay K. Mehrotra is a Professor of Law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and an Affiliated Professor of History at Northwestern University. He also serves as Executive Director and Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation (ABF). His expertise lies in U.S. legal, intellectual, and economic history, tax law, and political economy. Mehrotra holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Chicago.

His research explores law’s role in shaping fiscal policy and state-building. Notable works include Making the Modern American Fiscal State (2013), which won the 2014 Society for U.S. Intellectual History Award. His articles bridge legal frameworks with economic systems, such as analyzing capital gains tax policies and intellectual histories of capitalism.

Before academia, Mehrotra worked at J.P. Morgan’s Structured Finance division. He previously taught at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law and served as a Doctoral Fellow at the ABF. His interdisciplinary approach integrates legal, economic, and historical perspectives to examine fiscal systems and governance.