OVERVIEW
Murphy PA (the “Firm”) is a litigation boutique comprised of elite lawyers who specialize in complex civil litigation. The Firm has experience and expertise in complex commercial litigation, including commercial, personal injury, medical malpractice, employment, civil rights, criminal and class action law and has the ability to respond quickly, aggressively and creatively to actual and potential litigation. The Firm’s attorneys include a former trial judge, former prosecutors, law school professors, and judicial law clerks. In addition, the Firm’s attorneys have expertise that frequently informs business litigation. For example, one of the Firm’s attorneys is an electrical engineer expert in technology, another is skilled in mergers, acquisitions, corporate finance and other large-scale transactional work, and another is a certified public accountant and former auditor.
The Firm has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation involving some of the largest corporations in the country. Its highly skilled trial lawyers have handled thousands of trials and take great pride in their commitment to winning.
As detailed below, the Firm has had extraordinary success in jury verdicts and awards and in settlements in numerous high-profile complex civil cases. The Firm’s corporate clients include Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Sony, Qualcomm, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., H&R Block, The Baltimore Orioles, The Washington Redskins, Doracon Development Corp., The Maryland Stadium Authority, Don King Productions, Inc., Honeywell Corporation, Allied Signal, Inc., Meridian Management Group Ventures, Inc., Steele Software Systems, The University of Maryland Medical Systems, Inc., and Scottsdale Insurance Company.
An African-American-owned firm featuring an ethnically diverse group of attorneys, the Firm is arguably the most effective and unique complex litigation firm in the Mid-Atlantic region. This formidable litigation boutique, large enough to handle some of the nation’s most complicated civil litigation in-house, is small and responsive enough to provide quality client service not normally found in other factory-styled law firms. Without the bureaucracy and stratification typically encumbering larger law firms, the Firm can keep in constant communication with its clients and tailor legal services to suit its clients’ specific needs. Moreover, because of its size and structure, the Firm can provide flexible and creative solutions to litigation problems, both in recommending innovative and novel litigation strategies and in fashioning unconventional settlement solutions that factor more than dollars. Unlike most law firms both large and small, the Firm stands ready to try cases, especially in the toughest jurisdictions around the country.
This inventive approach to litigation has translated into a history of litigation success – both in the courtroom and in settlement negotiations. In June 2006, the Firm obtained a $44,300,000.00 verdict in Baltimore City Circuit Court for an individual who was rendered a quadriplegic after a battery by a Baltimore City Police officer\ --. Mosley v. Bryan Keshaw.
In March 2002 the Firm won a $276,000,000 verdict against a major national bank which included the largest punitive damages award in Maryland history -- Steele Software Systems v. First Union National Bank. In March of 2003 the firm successfully defended Johnson & Johnson against a multi-million dollar trial in the United States District Court in New Orleans concerning the drug propulsid in Diaz v. Johnson & Johnson; and in January 2003 the Firm successfully obtained a stay of class litigation against H&R Block in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City pending approval of a national settlement involving the same claims. In February 2000 the Firm was involved in negotiating a $185 million settlement against Ernst & Young, the largest single-defendant settlement in Maryland history -- Devan v. Ernst & Young. The firm was engaged as plaintiff’s counsel in pending multi-billion dollar litigation against Grant Thornton LLP in Carnegie International Corp, et al. v. Grant Thornton, LLP in Baltimore and defense counsel for Don King Productions, Inc. in Mike Tyson v. Don King Productions, et al. in the United States District Court in New York City.
In 2001 the Firm successfully defended the Microsoft Corporation in Jackson, et al. v. Microsoft, and Donaldson, et al. v. Microsoft against two $5 billion race discrimination class action cases brought separately by Willie Gary and Johnny Cochran. The result was the dismissal of the class allegations in the first case and the refusal to certify a class in the second case. Additionally, the Firm recently represented a class of 890 juveniles who were physically abused in a boot camp run by Maryland's Department of Juvenile Justice. The Firm successfully negotiated a multi-million dollar settlement which also awards these juveniles college tuition at the state's expense.
