Orla is an experienced litigator who focuses her practice on complex and commercial litigation matters, including toxic tort, construction, employment, federal whistleblower, business contract, and real estate claims. She has a particular focus on catastrophic accident cases concerning the New York Scaffold Law, motor vehicle laws, lead and mold statutes and ordinances, and Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) whistleblower actions before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). She has appeared as counsel in New York appellate courts, federal and state courts, and before federal administrative agencies.
Orla has significant experience with all phases of litigation, including case assessment and development, pre-trial pleadings and motions, discovery, trial preparation, and appeals. She has successfully moved for and defeated summary judgment on various procedural and substantive issues, including personal jurisdiction and serious injury threshold. Orla also has mediation experience, achieving favorable settlements for her clients before JAMS and NAM. She has also successfully briefed appeals and argued before New York appellate courts.
Orla has presented on liability issues concerning autonomous vehicles and on litigating in the age of COVID-19. She was also selected to join the National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 for New York.
Before joining the firm, Orla practiced at the New York office of a northeast-based law firm, where her practice focused on complex litigation matters, including lead and mold litigation, federal whistleblower actions, and malpractice litigation.
Orla earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Tufts University, and her law degree from Boston University School of Law. While in law school, she was a summer law clerk at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, and also summered for a federal Magistrate Judge.