Born March 1, 1964, Amato began her legal career as a law clerk for The Honorable Robert W. Sweet (Southern District of New York-Manhattan) and then became a staff attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington, D.C. She litigated high-profile cases and was the director of the Freedom of Information Clearinghouse.
Amato has also served as the executive director of the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, worked in private practice, and is of counsel to the firm Despres, Schwartz & Geoghegan.
Amato is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C. and has experience litigating and supervising the litigation of lawsuits at all levels of state and federal courts, testifying in front of public bodies, conducting corporate transactional work in the areas of banking, trusts, and securities, philanthropic fundraising and grantmaking, and navigating regulatory agencies.
In both 2000 and 2004, Amato served as the national presidential campaign manager and in-house counsel for Ralph Nader, who obtained the highest vote count in the United States for a third-party progressive candidate since 1924, and shepherded election reform efforts and litigation to open up the political system to competition.
In 2009, the New Press (New York) published Amato's book, "Grand Illusion, The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny", which advocates for drastic electoral reforms.