Michael Orta

Overview

Michael Orta is a litigation attorney with Jimerson Birr’s complex litigation team, providing representation to clients on disputes that are either in active litigation or still in a pre-litigation posture. At Jimerson Birr he assists primarily with providing bespoke solutions and strategies on commercial contract disputes across multiple industries and jurisdictions. He previously practiced civil litigation insurance defense for a little under a decade and was named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for Insurance Law in 2024 and 2025. Prior to joining Jimerson Birr, he managed a practice group with two dozen attorneys and upwards of five thousand cases under management. He has overseen the hiring and training of associate attorneys, law clerks, Summer Associates, and paralegals. He possesses both an MBA and a law degree and is a member of The Florida Bar. He is also admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

He has years of prior litigation experience in the practice fields of first party property claims, compelling alternative dispute resolution, personal injury cases, uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, premises liability claims, wrongful death cases, professional malpractice claims, insurance bad faith litigation, landlord & tenant disputes, commercial contract disputes, corporate governance, not-for-profit tax code compliance, and real property disputes. He also has additional legal experience in providing coverage assessments and opinions, assisting with insurance policy provision drafting, as well as traditional contract and settlement agreement drafting.

Prior to attending law school, he worked in the fields of leadership education & development, recruitment and marketing, and coached rowing. He has entry-level, management, and board-level experience in leadership education and management consulting, providing advisory services in the fields of business development, market expansion, market strategy, cash flow management, data analysis, competitive analysis, system design, leadership education, internal accreditation programming, risk management and alternative dispute resolution.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in History with a concentration in Intellectual History from Bucknell University in 2006. While at Bucknell, he was a member of the rowing team, the rugby club, helped restart the Phi Lambda Theta Chapter of the Chi Phi National Fraternity, and wrote for the sports page of the school paper. After college, he joined the national staff of the Chi Phi National Fraternity, where he worked as a Field Executive and later the Director of Expansion, before departing staff, later joining the board of directors in a volunteer capacity. He later earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA), with concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Real Estate Development, at the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary in 2011. Finally, he is also a 2014 graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, where his studies were concentrated on International Trade, International Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, System Design, and Complex Litigation. While in law school, he also took courses at Tsinghua and Fudan Universities in the People’s Republic of China and interned at King & Wood Mallesons in Shanghai after his 1L year.

Michael was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, and these days lives in Ponte Vedra Beach with his wife, three children, and dog. Michael is a lifelong fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, dogs, and movies. When he isn’t working he enjoys Lego both with his children and solo, watching college football, cooking barbeque, reading, and is an on-again, off-again runner with several marathons and a pair of ultramarathons under his belt.