Natalie Woodward
Founding Partner | Woodward Ortiz, LLC
Natalie Woodward is a medical malpractice, psychiatric malpractice and product liability trial lawyer and founding partner at Woodward Ortiz, LLC in Atlanta, Georgia. J.D., University of Georgia School of Law (2002).
Meet Natalie
Natalie Woodward is a founding partner of Woodward Ortiz, a Georgia trial firm serving clients in Atlanta and across the state. She represents people harmed by medical and psychiatric malpractice and by dangerous products, families who have lost someone to negligence, and children who have survived sexual abuse.
In 2022 she won a $77.7 million psychiatric malpractice verdict for the family of a young man discharged from a mental health facility without his medication, which her firm reports as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Georgia history. Her firm credits her with more than $250 million in verdicts and settlements, including a $46 million federal verdict against a national institution that allowed child sexual abuse to occur. Her first jury trial as lead counsel, a 2010 wrongful arrest case, ended in a $1 million verdict.
Woodward grew up in Powder Springs and earned undergraduate degrees in journalism and political science and a 2002 law degree from the University of Georgia. She is an officer of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, slated to serve as its president in 2028-2029, and is a Special Master appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Experience and Expertise
Qualifications
Timeline
- J.D., University of Georgia School of Law, 2002
- B.S., Journalism, University of Georgia, 1998
- B.S., Political Science, University of Georgia, 1999
- State Bar of Georgia
Practice Areas
- Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (Executive Vice President; slated President 2028-2029)
- State Bar of Georgia (Bench and Bar Committee)
- Supreme Court of Georgia (Special Master)
- State Bar of Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission Nominating Committee (Board Member, 2022-2023)
- State Bar of Georgia Statewide Judicial Evaluation Committee (Board Member, 2022-2023)
- St. Benedict's Episcopal School (Board of Directors)
- GTLA Tommy Malone Award for Outstanding Verdict
- Super Lawyers, Top 50 Women in Georgia
- Super Lawyers, Top 100 Women in Georgia
- Super Lawyers (2023)
- Best Young Lawyers in Georgia, Atlanta Magazine
- $77.7 Million Verdict: Psychiatric malpractice verdict obtained in 2022 for the Carusillo family, whose son was discharged from a mental health facility without his medication.
- $46 Million Verdict: Total verdict after a week-long federal bench trial holding a national institution liable for knowingly allowing child sexual abuse.
- $14 Million Verdict: Product liability verdict.
- $13 Million Verdict: Product liability verdict.
- $10 Million Verdict: Sexual abuse verdict.
- $9 Million Settlement: Pre-suit settlement for the suicide of a child wrongfully discharged from a mental health facility.
- $5 Million Settlement: Pre-suit settlement for a patient's overdose at a drug rehabilitation facility.
- $5 Million Settlement: Catastrophic injury settlement in a product liability case.
- $2 Million Settlement: Wrongful death of a patient in a medical malpractice case.
- $2 Million Settlement: Wrongful death caused by psychiatric malpractice.
- $1.85 Million Settlement: Wrongful death caused by a medication dosage error.
- $1.5 Million Settlement: Medical malpractice case involving an injury to a child.
- $1 Million Verdict: Wrongful arrest verdict in 2010, her first jury trial as lead counsel; described as the largest verdict of its kind in Georgia history.
- $1 Million Settlement: Pre-suit settlement against a care facility whose failure to supervise a resident led to her suicide.
- $750,000 Settlement: Complex medical malpractice claim.
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