Michigan judge elected president of Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal

Michigan judge elected president of Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal

Williamsburg, Va. (November 16, 2016) — Judge William B. Murphy, of the Michigan Court of Appeals, has been elected president of the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal (CCJSCA), a national association dedicated to improving the administration of justice in state appellate courts. He will serve a one-year term, which commenced during the conference’s 37th annual meeting in Cary, North Carolina.

Judge Murphy has served as judge for the Michigan Court of Appeals since 1988. He has also been an adjunct professor at Western Michigan Thomas M. Cooley Law School since 2011.

Among Judge Murphy’s judicial duties, he was elected to the State Bar of Michigan Board of Commissioners, District C, (2001-10); elected to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission (1995-2003); elected to the Board of Trustees of the Michigan State Bar Foundation; selected by the Michigan Supreme Court to the Michigan delegation to the National Conference on Racial and Ethnic Bias (1995); chosen by the Michigan Supreme Court to the Judicial Executive Committee and Strategic Planning Committee for the Michigan Justice Project (1994); elected chief judge pro tem for the Michigan Court of Appeals (1992-96); and was appointed Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals by the Michigan Supreme Court (2009-2015) on three occasions.

Judge Murphy has received several awards, including the Michigan Association for Justice Judicial Excellence Award and the National Center for State Courts Distinguished Service Award, both in 2015.

Judge Murphy is currently a member of the State Bar of Michigan and Grand Rapids Bar Association.

Judge Murphy was an adjunct professor at Michigan State University-Detroit College of Law from 1997-98. He was the founding partner at Murphy, Burns and McInerney, P.C., a civil and criminal trial practice firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1973-88. Shortly after graduating with a juris doctor from Wayne State University Law School (1970), he served as a law clerk for the Michigan Court of Appeals (1970-71) and was an attorney at Rhoades, McKee and Boer in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1971-73).

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) provides executive secretariat services to CCJSCA. The NCSC, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice by providing leadership and service to the state courts. Founded in 1971 by the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, NCSC provides education, training, technology, management, and research services to the nation's state courts.