John Morgan
Attorney, Founder of Morgan & Morgan, Author
John Morgan founded Morgan & Morgan in 1988. The firm’s first office was located in Orlando, Florida and was made up of three attorneys, two paralegals and a receptionist. By 1992, the firm expanded to include eight lawyers, 10 paralegals, and a sizable support staff as it began to focus its practice on medical malpractice. In 1995, the firm grew to include 25 lawyers and opened a second office in Tampa. By 1999, more than 40 attorneys and 40 paralegals were employed by the firm, which began to specialize in nationwide mass tort litigation.
In the past three decades, Morgan & Morgan has opened offices in Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tampa, West Tampa, Ocala, Daytona Beach, St. Petersburg, Winter Haven, Naples, Tallahassee, Kissimmee, Tavares, West Palm Beach, Sarasota, Lakeland, Deland, and The Villages. Outside of Florida, Morgan & Morgan has opened offices in Atlanta, Columbus, and Savannah, Georgia; Lexington, Bowling Green, Louisville, Paducah, and Prestonsburg, Kentucky; Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Brooklyn, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and New Orleans, Louisiana. The firm has grown to include nearly 420 attorneys, 305 paralegals and a support staff of about 2,000 people. We recover close to $1 billion a year for our clients.
About John
On March 31, 1956, John Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1971, he and his family moved to Orlando, Florida, where John attended high school. After graduating, John enrolled in the University of Florida and became a member of Alpha Tau Omega. In 1982, he became president of Florida Blue Key. John graduated from the University of Florida College of Law in 1983.
By 1988, John had founded Morgan & Morgan under the belief that the firm would represent the people, not the powerful. To this day, John has run the firm by that code, promising never to take a case representing an insurance carrier or large company. Through John’s guidance, leadership and vision, the firm has founded multiple locations throughout Florida, including Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Winter Haven, Daytona, Kissimmee, Saint Petersburg, Naples, Tavares, Jacksonville, Melbourne, The Villages, Pensacola, Tallahassee, Miami, and Big Pine Key. The firm has also expanded nationally, opening offices in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Morgan & Morgan employs more than 400 attorneys, 305 paralegals and a support staff of more than 2,000 people. Three decades after the firm’s inception, “for the people” continues to be a way of life for John Morgan and the firm.
John has lectured across the country on the practice of law. He has been an active member of the Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers and served as a FLAG trustee, making a push for Florida state law that would protect families from corporations and insurance companies. John is currently on the board of trustees for the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.
John has received Martindale-Hubbell’s esteemed “AV” rating, which recognizes lawyers with the highest ethical standards and professional ability. Based on the recommendations of his peers, John’s “AV” rating serves a testament to the fact that fellow attorneys consider him at the highest level of professional excellence. Only a select group of attorneys are ever awarded this premier distinction.
John has reached another career milestone when he has proudly released his books titled “You Can’t Teach Hungry…Creating the Multimillion Dollar Law Firm,” and “You Can’t Teach Vision…The Twenty-First Century Law Firm” on which he frequently lectures. The books offer insight into John’s success, philosophy and business methods, and provides the groundwork for a sustainable and enduring practice. Lawyers from across the country have read the books and continue to reach out to John for further guidance and advice.
John and his wife, Ultima, proudly support the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, whose principal goal is to end the “invisible problem” of hunger throughout the state. In 2013, John and Ultima made a generous donation that helped the organization fund and open the Morgan & Morgan, P.A. Hunger Relief Center. The 100,000-square foot facility—more than double the size of its predecessor—is equipped with ample freezers, coolers, and infrastructure space to store the millions of pounds of food collected by Second Harvest each year.
In 2013, John announced his support of the campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Florida for use by the state’s seriously ill. According to John, the deeply personal cause was a step to not only provide safer pain relief and treatment methods for those with legitimate diseases, but also to help end the rampant problem of prescription drug abuse in Florida.
In addition to his financial contributions, John was the public face of the effort, openly recruiting volunteers to collect the thousands of signatures needed to place the initiative on Florida’s November 2016 general election ballot. After years of hard work, Amendment 2 was finally passed, with 71 percent of Floridians voting in favor of the ballot initiative.
With all of his success, John’s personal accomplishment of raising four children with Ultima, his wife of 31 years, remains dearest to his heart.