J. Michael “Mike” Mackay

Of Counsel, Workers’ Compensation Attorney serving all of North Carolina

Mike Mackay is Of Counsel to Horton & Mendez Injury Lawyers, bringing more than three decades of North Carolina litigation experience to the firm’s workers’ compensation practice. Mike has spent his career on both sides of the litigation fence, having started his career with a large insurance defense firm in Raleigh and then spending more than the past two decades focused on representing injured workers. For the majority of this time, Mike served as the manager partner for a large law firm focused on representing injured workers. Mike’s further experience includes serving as the Claims Director for the North Carolina Industrial Commission, which is the agency that decides workers’ compensation claims in this State and being a Board-Certified Specialist in North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law from approximately 2006 – 2022. In addition, Mike is a Certified Mediator through the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission — a combination of experience he utilizes to counsel clients about how the other side will value and defend a claim.

Mike began his law career in 1993 and was focused on insurance defense for the first stage of his law career During this time, Mike represented large insurance companies and self-insured companies in defending workers’ compensation and personal injury claims. After a family member was injured on the job, Mike then decided to focus his law career in representing individuals with workers’ compensation claims. He then spent two decades as Managing Partner of the Workers’ Compensation Department at one of North Carolina’s largest plaintiffs’ firms, where he built and led the practice, supervised its attorneys and staff, and represented injured workers in claims across North Carolina. Over those years, he has handled numerous hearings and mediations before the North Carolina Industrial Commission and recovered workers’ compensation benefits for injured workers and their families.

Mike’s law practice centers on the injuries that upend a working life: back and spine injuries, arm and leg injuries, repetitive trauma, head injuries, construction and industrial accidents, and the denied or undervalued claims that leave injured workers without wage replacement or medical care. He also has experience handing third-party personal injury claims that can arise alongside a workers’ compensation case — the crashes and premises injuries where a workers’ compensation claim alone may leave additional compensation on the table.

A double Tar Heel and North Carolina native. Mike earned both his undergraduate degree and his law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying journalism and political science, and working as a journalist, before law school — a background that shows in how clearly he explains a complicated claim to the person living it. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, Kelly, who is also a lawyer and whom he met while they were both law students at UNC -Chapel Hill. Together they have two children and enjoy spending family time together. A lifelong sports and travel enthusiast, Mike recently completed a bucket list goal of seeing games at each of the 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.