Orla is an experienced litigator who focuses her practice on complex and commercial litigation matters, including construction, toxic tort, employment, federal whistleblower, breach of contract, business torts, and insurance dispute claims. Her practice is particularly focused 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 summary judgment on various procedural and substantive issues, including personal jurisdiction, New York’s Labor Law 200, 240(1) and 241(6), and the serious injury threshold. Orla also has achieved favorable settlements for clients at private mediations, including before JAMS and NAM. She has also successfully briefed and argued appeals before New York appellate courts.
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, OSHA federal whistleblower actions, and malpractice litigation.
Orla has presented on liability issues concerning autonomous vehicles, Autonomous Vehicles: The Future of Litigation and Risk for Personal Injury Cases (2020), and on litigating in the age of COVID-19, Pandemic Litigation Trends (2020) and Regulatory and Litigation Issues Arising Out of the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020). She is a member of the National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 for New York, the Defense Association of New York, where she serves a board member, and the Defense Research Institute, where she was designated as the New York state representative for a three-year term.
Orla earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Tufts University, and her law degree from Boston University School of Law. While in college, she studied abroad at University College London and interned for a member of Parliament. While in law school, Orla was a summer law clerk at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, and a summer extern for a federal Magistrate Judge.