Billy Murphy Jr.

William H. Murphy Jr. (born April 22, 1943) is an American attorney and former judge in Baltimore, Maryland, now working as managing partner of Murphy, Falcon, Murphy law firm. An African-American, Murphy has been particularly associated with advocacy for civil rights; he has also been prominent in local politics over several decades.

Early life

Murphy was one of five children born to William H. Murphy Sr., one of the first African-American judges to serve on Baltimore's district court, and community and political activist Madeline Wheeler Murphy. He is the brother of Laura W. Murphy. They grew up in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood.

Murphy attended Baltimore City Public Schools, graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute high school. In 1965, he completed a B.S. in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before going on to the University of Maryland School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review and earned his J.D. in 1969.

Law and political career

From the beginning of his career, Murphy was especially active as an advocate in civil rights-related cases. In his first successful case, he defended the First Amendment rights of a controversial Black Panther Party newspaper. Murphy gained particular public prominence as a criminal defense lawyer, in which role he drew public attention to the history of injustice toward African-Americans.
In 1980, Murphy was elected to Baltimore's Circuit Court (Maryland's highest-level trial court), on which he served as a judge for two and a half years. He resigned in 1983 to pursue an unsuccessful primary challenge to incumbent Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer in that year's mayoral election. In his campaign, he spoke of an "other Baltimore" which, he said, had been neglected by those focused on improving the city's public image, leaving it without the investment of resources that could help to address its long-term problems.

Murphy then returned to practicing law, mostly handling criminal cases. In 1993, he formed a partnership with Cristina Gutierrez. The new firm, Murphy and Gutierrez continued to handle criminal cases. After Gutierrez left the firm to establish her own firm Murphy then collaborated with his long time associate Richard Falcon to found the firm Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, in which Murphy continues to serve as a senior partner. Here, his practice has focused on civil litigation, including several high-profile cases representing Fortune 500 companies. In 1994, ''The Baltimore Sun'' described Murphy as having "a reputation for pushing client advocacy to its legal limits", in an article in which Murphy explained his role as preventing "the rules rom beingbent against unpopular people." Murphy's work has earned numerous honors, including recognition as the "Top Attorney in Maryland" by ''Baltimore Magazine Super Lawyers'', for both 2009 and 2010, and listing among the American Trial Lawyers Association's "100 Top Trial Lawyers in the U.S.", in 2011. In 2004, the University of Baltimore presented Murphy with its inaugural Charles Hamilton Houston

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