Bernard Murphy was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in June 2011.
Justice Murphy graduated from Monash University and was admitted as a practitioner in 1980. He was senior partner at Slater & Gordon from 1990 to 1995, and Chair of the law firm Maurice Blackburn from 2005 until his appointment to the court.
He practiced initially in common law litigation, then industrial law, and from 1998 he headed Maurice Blackburn’s national class actions practice specializing in class action litigation relating to directors’ duties, corporate conduct, and cartel conduct. He conducted, supervised or advised on more than 30 class actions in this period.
He is a senior fellow of the University of Melbourne, lecturing in class action law.
EDUCATION: Monash University, bachelor of laws; Monash University, bachelor of jurisprudence