Our Attorneys

About Our Attorneys

Concentration: Real Estate, Residential and Light Commercial; Personal Injury; Arbitration; Mediation

Arthur J. Murphy

• Law Career

  • Admission to the Bar in Illinois (1978)
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (1978)
  • Federal Trial Bar (1982)

• Education 

  • Undergraduate Studies – The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. (B.A., 1973)
  • Legal Education – The John Marshall Law School (now the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law), Chicago, Illinois (J.D., 1978)

• Legal Experience

  In 1979, Mr. Murphy became associated with the law firm of Orner & Wasserman, Ltd. in Chicago, Illinois, where he specialized in insurance defense litigation from March 1979 to April 1988. During this time, he conducted numerous jury trials to verdict. He was made a partner in that firm in January 1984.

  Mr. Murphy founded Murphy & Smith, Ltd. in April of 1988, where he has practiced to the present time.

  He has served as an arbitrator with the Cook County Mandatory Arbitration Program since the beginning of that program in 1990. In that capacity, he has presided over hundreds of personal injury cases, property damage cases, and landlord/tenant cases. He is also a Neutral Arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and is frequently appointed as an arbitrator in private three-person boards in the areas of uninsured or underinsured claims.

  During employment with Murphy & Smith, he also served as a law clerk for Judge Rosemarie Lipinski of the Illinois Court of Claims from 2004 to 2006.

  Volunteer Supervising Attorney with the Elder Law & Miscellaneous Remedies Division of the Cook County Circuit from September 2013 to May 2014. This was part of a pilot program instituted by the Honorable Patricia Banks, Presiding Judge of the Elder Law Division. His pro bono role was to supervise and direct legal interns (law students) and to counsel elderly citizens on a wide variety of legal problems.

• Lectures & Publications

  Mr. Murphy has been a guest lecturer for the Loyola University Chicago School of Law (Negotiation) and the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (Trial Preparation).

  Publication, “A Litigator’s Guide to Mediation,” Illinois Bar Journal, January 2006, Vol. 94.

  Co-authored an article for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin entitled “Assessing Electronic Discovery’s Often Unintended Consequences,” 2015.

  Organized and presided over a CLE-approved seminar for an in-house insurance defense firm in 2017. The topic was the proper handling of uninsured/underinsured arbitration matters.

• Affiliations

  Mr. Murphy is a member of the Chicago Bar Association and is on the following committees:

  • Chicago Bar Association Tort Law Committee
  • Chicago Bar Association Insurance Law Committee
  • Chicago Bar Association Committee for Alternate Dispute Resolution
  • Chicago Bar Association Mediation Program.

  He is the former president of the Catholic University of America Alumni Organization, Chicago Chapter. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors for The Library of International Relations.