Associate Professor of Law at Wayne State University, where he teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure, and evidence. His scholarship focuses on the legal and institutional design of criminal justice. He has written extensively on plea bargaining’s history (When Plea Bargaining Became Normal and Plea Bargaining Abolitionism: A History), its consequences on legal doctrine (Confrontation in the Age of Plea Bargaining and Probable Cause Revisited), and possibilities for its reform (Second-Best Criminal Justice).

Before joining Wayne Law, Ortman was a criminal defense lawyer and commercial litigator. He has a law degree from the University of Chicago.