Clients call on Marty Murphy, a veteran courtroom advocate and negotiator, to help solve a broad range of high-stakes legal problems. Marty represents companies, individuals (including senior corporate executives), educational and other non-profit institutions and law firms in complex civil litigation, criminal investigations, and regulatory proceedings. He also conducts investigations for companies and non-profit institutions. Marty has tried more than 40 cases to completion before state and federal courts and arbitration panels, and argued more than a dozen appeals before the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He has also successfully resolved dozens of hotly contested disputes without ever stepping into a courtroom.
Marty is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is described by Chambers USA (2016) as a “phenomenal trial lawyer who has incredible credibility and a wonderful manner” and has twice (2013, 2016) been named Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year by his peers in the publication Best Lawyers in America.
Marty has represented clients in health care and securities fraud investigations, defended white collar prosecutions, capital murder cases, and many other criminal investigations. He has also handled a remarkably diverse set of civil cases, including business and securities disputes, employment discrimination cases, non-compete and trade secret matters, legal and medical malpractice claims, False Claims Act cases and wrongful death matters, among many others.
Companies, corporate directors, and non-profit organizations have called on Marty to conduct internal investigations across a wide array of subjects, including reviews of institutional response to sexual abuse, allegations of securities fraud, market manipulation, obstruction of justice, workplace hate crimes, and allegations of excessive executive compensation. He currently serves as counsel to a Monitor appointed by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to evaluate a major financial institution’s compliance program.
Marty also regularly represents indigent defendants charged with serious crimes in federal and state court.
Marty brings to his work a decade of experience as a federal and state prosecutor. As a federal prosecutor in the District of Massachusetts, he headed the Office’s Major Crimes Division and investigated and prosecuted federal securities, mail, wire and bank fraud cases among others. As First Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts (the state’s largest county), he led a staff of more than 100 prosecutors and, as the office’s chief trial lawyer, personally prosecuted murder, white collar crime, civil rights, sexual assault and child abuse cases. He also supervised the office’s prosecutors in the Superior and District Court, and in its Special Investigations and Child Abuse Units. Marty recently served, by appointment of former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and current Attorney General Maura Healey, as Special Prosecutor in connection with the investigation of the death of a patient in custody at the Bridgewater State Hospital.
Marty also plays an active role in the legal community. He serves as member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of the Boston Bar Association. He serves as the co-chair of the BBA’s Working Group on Criminal Justice Reform, and was a principal co-author of the Working Group’s 2017 report, No Time to Wait: Recommendations for a Fair and Effective Criminal Justice System. In 2014, he served as the co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Death Penalty Working Group and helped lead the BBA’s effort to speak out against the federal death penalty. As co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Task Force to Prevent Wrongful Convictions, he co-authored the BBA’s widely publicized 2009 report, Getting it Right: Improving the Accuracy and Reliability of the Criminal Justice System in Massachusetts, and helped lead the successful effort to enact Massachusetts’ first statute to provide inmates imprisoned as a result of wrongful convictions with access to post-conviction relief. Marty also serves as the BBA’s designee to the Massachusetts Special Commission to Study the Commonwealth’s Criminal Justice System.
Marty serves as the American College of Trial Lawyers’ Regent for the First Circuit and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. By appointment of the United States District Court, he serves on the Board of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the District of Massachusetts. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. From 2010 to 2015, he served as a Commissioner of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission
After graduating from law school, Marty served as a law clerk to the late Hon. A. David Mazzone of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Education
Healthcare
Life Sciences
Professional Services