Incoming University of Georgia School of Law Professor William Ortman presented on the history of plea bargaining as part of the panel “American Perspectives on Plea Bargaining” at the Michele Taruffo Girona Evidence Week in Spain last month.

The Michele Taruffo Girona Evidence Week aims to “be a meeting point for all members of the international community who are dedicated to or interested in evidential legal reasoning.”

Ortman will join the University of Georgia School of Law as a professor of law in fall of 2025. Ortman specializes in criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. Since 2016, he has served on the faculty at Wayne State University Law School, where he was named the David Adamany Research Scholar (2024–25) and the Edward M. Wise Research Scholar (2020–23). While at Wayne State, Ortman was recognized with multiple teaching awards. He previously held positions as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School (2022) and as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School (2013–16).

Ortman’s scholarship focuses on the institutional and legal design of criminal adjudication. His recent work includes “Confession and Confrontation,” published in the California Law Review (2025), and “Cliff Running” (with Dov Fox), which is forthcoming in the Washington University Law Review.