John Morgan

John Bryan Morgan (born March 31, 1956) is an American attorney.

He is best known as founder of personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan.

Politico described Morgan as "the godfather of Florida's medical marijuana amendment and a Democratic fundraiser."

Morgan was born on March 31, 1956, in Lexington, Kentucky, the eldest of five children, to Ramon Morgan and Patricia Morgan.

When Morgan was fourteen years old, his family moved to Winter Park, Florida.

Morgan began working in various jobs at an early age, as his family struggled financially.

In 1974, he entered the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor's degree in arts in 1978.

He took an 18-month hiatus selling ads to pay for his studies at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

He received his Juris Doctor in 1982.

While at university, he was the elected president of the Florida Blue Key society.

Morgan met his wife, Ultima Degnan, while studying law.

They were married in May 1982.

Morgan and Ultima Ann Degnan have four children.

After graduating from law school in 1982, Morgan began his legal career at the law firm of Billings, Morgan (no relation) and Cunningham in Orlando.

He left in 1985 to co-found the law firm Griffin, Morgan & Linder, a partnership that lasted three more years.

According to Florida Trend, the partners differed in their views on marketing, in particular, Morgan insisted on advertising on television, which at the time was a controversial practice for lawyers.

From 1988 to 2005, Morgan was a founding partner at Morgan, Colling & Gilbert.

In 1989, the law firm began aggressive advertising on television and radio to the discontent of the legal community.

The company also practiced enticing top young lawyers from other law firms.

By the early 2000s, the firm expanded throughout Florida with 420 employees, and by 2013 the company had 260 attorneys among 1,800 staffers in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Manhattan.

In 2005, Morgan bought out his partners' share of the company and renamed the firm Morgan & Morgan, also adding his wife Ultima as partner.

Three of his children, Matt, Mike, and Dan, eventually joined the law firm.

The firm bills itself as "America's Largest Injury Law Firm."

Morgan & Morgan is headquartered in Orlando.

As of 2022, the law firm had over 3,000 employees, including 800 lawyers, in 49 states.

He stated in November 2016 that he was considering running for Governor of Florida in the 2018 election.

He also criticized the Democratic National Committee for supporting Hillary Clinton before the Democratic primary was over in 2016.

Morgan has been an advisor and fundraiser for Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi.

On November 24, 2017, he announced on Twitter that he was disillusioned with the current state of American politics and was leaving the Democratic Party to register as an independent.

In 2018, the firm received over two million phone calls and signed up 500 new cases each day.

That year, the firm collected $1.5 billion in settlements and spent $130 million nationwide on advertising.

Morgan was one of the first lawyers to advertise in phone books and television commercials.

In 2021, Morgan's law firm fired half of its marketing department.

The staffing purge came in the wake of a controversial Morgan & Morgan national advertising campaign, "Size Matters," which was meant to convey the large scale of the firm, but was criticized as an inappropriate dick joke.

The staffers who were fired had criticized the ad campaign's phallic implications.

The firm said that no one was fired because of the controversy surrounding the campaign.

Morgan & Morgan has been involved in a number of notable legal cases, including the Daytona Beach Rollercoaster Incident, the Tampa Walgreens Sexual Harassment case, a twenty-two million dollar case against Healogics Inc., a major lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 2018, and a class action lawsuit against a data broker, Exactis, over a data breach.

In August 2022, Morgan starred in his firm commercial using the metaverse.

Morgan is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party.

He served as former President Bill Clinton's state finance chairman.