Kellam M. Conover *10

Kellam fell to his death on Nov. 24, 2025, while climbing Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. He was 44. 

Born July 20, 1981, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore in 2003, then completed his Ph.D. in classics at Princeton in 2010. His dissertation was “Bribery in Classical Athens.” In addition to knowledge of Greek and Latin, he was conversant in French, Italian, and German. 

After Princeton, Kellam attended Stanford Law School, earning his J.D. degree in 2013. He clerked for Raymond C. Fisher in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena. He was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before joining the Washington, D.C., firm King & Spalding in 2023.  

Kellam’s legal expertise included defending securities actions, cases involving constitutional law, bankruptcy, patents and administrative procedure. He wrote briefs in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal appeals courts. He was named one of the best lawyers to look out for in 2023. 

At the time of his death, he was reworking his dissertation on corruption in Athens in the hope that lessons learned from that time might help in modern society. 

Kellam is survived by his mother, Pam Conover, and her wife, Sue Estroff. 

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.