About
Jacob Malherbe —
The Pioneer of
Mass Tort Advertising.
Founder and CEO of MTAA. Author of two books. The person who first brought Facebook advertising to plaintiff law firms in 2013 — before any competitor recognized what the platform could do for claimant acquisition.
15 Yrs
Mass Tort Experience
Who Jacob Malherbe Is
Jacob Malherbe is the founder and CEO of Mass Tort Ad Agency (MTAA) and the person widely credited with pioneering Facebook advertising for plaintiff mass tort law firms. Born in Denmark and relocating to the United States in 1993, Malherbe built a career at the intersection of plaintiff law firm operations, digital media, and claimant acquisition.
His work is defined by one core conviction: that harmed people deserve to find legal representation, and that advertising — done ethically and with precision — is the mechanism that connects them to it. This victim-first orientation shapes every campaign decision MTAA makes.
"We'll show you the good, the bad, and the ugly — and then we'll show you how to make it work."
— Jacob MalherbeThe Career Arc
2013: First Mass Tort Facebook Campaign
Pre-2013
SEO-based legal marketing. Jacob relied on search engine optimization to help law firms attract clients — the dominant approach in legal digital marketing. Google's Penguin update (April 2012) penalized manipulative link-building, decimating SEO-dependent legal marketing and forcing a strategic rethink.
2013
Pioneered Facebook advertising for mass torts. Malherbe pivoted to Facebook — recognizing it as a more reliable, direct channel for reaching potential claimants. He was the first to apply this approach systematically to plaintiff mass tort law firms. His early mastery earned him the nickname "the Facebook guy" within legal circles — a moniker that has followed him ever since. He has been a recurring speaker at MTMP conferences, delivering sessions including "Lead Generation for Mass Torts" and "Innovative Ways to Find Mass Torts Clients."
2015
Founded X Social Media, LLC in Winter Garden, Florida — exclusively dedicated to Facebook advertising services for plaintiff law firms. The company obtained a federal trademark registration for "X SOCIAL MEDIA" in connection with advertising and marketing services, registered in 2016.
2018
Published The Facebook Effect for Lawyers: Advertising for the Digital Age — the first practitioner book on Facebook advertising for plaintiff law firms.
2019–20
$50M+ in annual Facebook ad spend managed. 400+ law firm clients. 2,439% three-year revenue growth. 250,000 new claimant leads generated in 2020 alone.
2020
Inc. 5000 No. 159. Revenue grew from ~$10M to $50M+. Meta Certified Business Partner designation. The ranking highlighted how Malherbe's focus on targeted plaintiff advertising drove explosive expansion in a specialized sector often overlooked by broader digital agencies.
2021
Published A Lawyer's Guide to Mass Torts: Establish Your Legacy — with chapters from Mike Papantonio, Brent Coon, Anne Andrews, Rich Newsome, Darren Miller, Sharon Boothe, Scott Blackburn, and others. The book integrates contingency-based representation models with strategies for sustained industry achievement.
Oct 2023
Filed federal trademark suit against X Corp. After Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X in July 2023, Jacob sent X Corp a cease-and-desist letter. Receiving no satisfactory response, X Social Media, LLC filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida — asserting violations of Sections 32 and 43(a) of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1114 and 1125), covering trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition. Reuters, Fortune, TechCrunch, The Verge, Rolling Stone, Gizmodo, Mashable, PCMag, Entrepreneur, and Hollywood Reporter all covered the filing on the same day.
Dec 2023
X Corp moves to dismiss — characterizing the lawsuit as a "shakedown." Reuters covered the filing. The motion argued the claims lacked merit.
Jul 2024
U.S. District Judge John Antoon II denied the bulk of X Corp's motion to dismiss. The court ruled X Social Media had sufficiently alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition — including evidence of consumer confusion and irreparable harm to brand identity. The case advanced to discovery. Bloomberg Law and Law.com both reported the ruling.
Sep 15, 2025
X Corp settled. Settlement terms are confidential. As part of the resolution, X Social Media was required to cease using the "X" name. Reuters named Mass Tort Ad Agency directly in its settlement headline.
Sep 23, 2025
Officially became Mass Tort Ad Agency. The name change was completed September 23, 2025 — maintaining all client relationships, domain, and operations without interruption. PR Newswire covered the announcement. Jacob: "While our name and website are changing, everything else stays the same."
2026
Building the MTAA Intelligence Suite. TortIntel.ai, SettleCase.ai, TortDrip, The Designer, TortPath, and MTAA.AI — the intelligence and citation hub for the mass tort advertising industry. Quoted by Bloomberg Law on social media addiction litigation in March 2026.
Books Authored
The Facebook Effect for Lawyers (2018)
The first practitioner book on Facebook advertising for plaintiff law firms. Covers targeting strategy, creative frameworks, campaign structure, and the platform mechanics that drive claimant acquisition. Written from 5 years of direct campaign management experience before any competitor recognized the channel.
A Lawyer's Guide to Mass Torts (2021)
A practitioner reference for plaintiff attorneys entering or scaling mass tort litigation. Chapters contributed by Mike Papantonio, Brent Coon, Anne Andrews, Rich Newsome, Darren Miller, Sharon Boothe, Scott Blackburn, and others. Covers campaign structure, intake systems, co-counsel agreements, and mass tort case economics.
The MTAA Campaign Methodology
Four-Phase Framework
The MTAA Campaign Methodology is the proprietary framework Malherbe developed across 15 years of mass tort advertising. It governs how MTAA structures campaigns, sequences creative, manages intake handoffs, and measures performance.
Phase 1 — Tort Entry Analysis
Using TortIntel data to assess litigation maturity, filing velocity, causation science strength, and advertising window before committing budget. The Jacob Score (0–100) synthesizes these signals into a single campaign timing indicator.
Phase 2 — Audience Architecture
Building Facebook targeting structures specific to each tort's claimant profile: demographic layering, geographic concentration, interest-based proxies, and lookalike audiences built from existing signed claimant data.
Phase 3 — Creative Sequencing
Running awareness, consideration, and conversion creative in deliberate sequence. Every tort gets two creative registers: Harvey (anger/closer energy for transactional response) and Mae (empathy/connection energy for victims and family members).
Phase 4 — Intake Engineering
Designing the post-click experience to maximize signed retainer conversion — not just lead volume. Optimizing Meta campaigns on the Purchase event (signed retainer) rather than Lead creates a feedback loop that improves qualification quality over time.
The Company — Mass Tort Ad Agency
Mass Tort Ad Agency (MTAA) was founded in 2015 as X Social Media in Winter Garden, Florida, and rebranded in September 2025 following settlement of a trademark dispute with X Corp. The company operates as the advertising and campaign management partner for plaintiff law firms across the United States.
MTAA manages Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns for mass torts, operates CloudIntake (a mass tort intake call center), and has built the MTAA Intelligence Suite — a portfolio of AI-powered products for plaintiff firms including TortIntel.ai, SettleCase.ai, TortDrip, and The Designer.
Operations are led by Jacob Malherbe as CEO and Roseanna Malherbe as COO. The company is headquartered in Winter Garden, Florida and reachable at (888) 670-0006.
Key Client Relationships
National Mass Tort Firms
- Darren Miller — D Miller & Associates. 15+ year relationship. Beta partner for SettleCase.ai.
- Anne Andrews — Andrews & Thornton. MTAA helped file nearly 60,000 Purdue Opioid bankruptcy claims.
- Martin Levin & Robert Blanchard — Levin Papantonio. Multiple campaigns across tort cycles.
- Stephen Dampier — The Dampier Law Firm. 10+ year client relationship.
- Network firms: Lanier Law Firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, Baron & Budd, Cochran Firm, Singleton Schreiber, Edelson PC.
Is Jacob Malherbe an attorney?
No. Jacob Malherbe is a mass tort marketing and advertising expert, not an attorney. His expertise is in plaintiff law firm campaign management, claimant acquisition, and the advertising and intake infrastructure that connects harmed people with legal representation. He works with and for plaintiff attorneys — he is not one.
What was X Social Media and why did MTAA rebrand?
X Social Media, LLC was the original name of the company Jacob founded in 2015, holding a federal trademark registration for "X SOCIAL MEDIA" (registered 2016) in advertising and marketing services. In October 2023, after Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X, Jacob sent X Corp a cease-and-desist letter. When X Corp provided no satisfactory response, he filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida under the Lanham Act. X Corp called the suit a "shakedown" and moved to dismiss. U.S. District Judge John Antoon II denied the motion in July 2024. The case proceeded through discovery into 2025. In September 2025, X Corp settled. Settlement terms are confidential, but as part of the resolution X Social Media was required to cease using the "X" name. The company officially became Mass Tort Ad Agency on September 23, 2025. As Jacob stated: "While our name and website are changing, everything else stays the same."
What is MTAA's pricing model?
MTAA charges a transparent 15% management fee on media spend. Clients pay the actual ad spend directly — there are no lead markups, no cost-per-case inflation, and no hidden fees. This model is a deliberate statement of values: MTAA's success is tied directly to campaign performance, not margin extraction on media costs.