William H. "Billy" Murphy, Jr.

william H. “BILLY” MURPHY, JR.

SENIOR PARTNER

Judge William H. “Billy” Murphy, Jr. is continuing the legacy of his father, Judge William H. “Bill” Murphy, Sr. Bill Murphy founded The Murphy Firm in 1948, representing poor people from Baltimore’s 15,000 unit Cherry Hill Housing Project, until he became a judge on the District Court of Maryland in 1970. The Firm, now known as Murphy Falcon & Murphy, may be the oldest African-American-owned law firm in the country.

Billy graduated from MIT in 1965 with a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in propaganda theory. Billy’s verdicts and settlements include Don King’s acquittal of mail and wire fraud in 1997; a $267 million dollar verdict against First Union Bank; a $185 million settlement against Ernst and Young; a $90 million class action settlement against Facebook; and a $34 million verdict for carbon monoxide poisoning.

He successfully defended H&R Block, which saved the company $5 billion; Johnson & Johnson that saved the company $5.5 billion; Scottsdale Insurance that saved the company $6 billion; and his remarkable defense of Microsoft against Johnnie Cochran and Willie Gary that saved the company $8.5 billion. He has won an estimated 90% of his hundreds of jury and bench trials in his 55 years of practice.

Candid and outspoken against police brutality, Billy has obtained a $44 million police brutality verdict for Albert Mosely, who was rendered a quadriplegic; a $20 million settlement for William Green, who was murdered; a $7.5 million settlement for Demonte Ward-Blake who was partially paralyzed; and in the Freddie Gray case, a $6.4 million settlement.

Billy was elected as a judge on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City in 1980 and served until he stepped down to run for mayor in 1983. He has received over 200 national and local awards for legal excellence and community service, including the Charles Hamilton Houston Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Baltimore School of Law; the Clarence Darrow Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Trial Lawyers; the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award by the Prince Hall Masons; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.