James A. Murphy

I am a trial lawyer.  The focus of my legal career has been in the field of securities law and trial work.

I started my career in Los Angeles, California representing national and regional securities broker-dealers, Wall Street investment banks, and directors & officers in securities class actions.

In 2010, I founded a law firm (Murphy & McGonigle, P.C.) to represent clients in the securities and banking industries. I recruited many talented lawyers who had previously worked at the SEC, CFTC, FINRA as well as a few former federal prosecutors.

The firm grew rapidly as our client list came to include much of Wall Street as well as major stock and options exchanges.  We offered a compelling value proposition of superior legal talent in a boutique law firm environment.

I handled many high-exposure cases in the State and Federal courts of New York arising out of the Great Financial Crisis.  These included a number of billion-dollar cases involving the implosion of mortgage-backed securities trusts as well as actions pending in the Lehman bankruptcy case.

In 2017, we pivoted the firm toward representing emerging companies leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt the world of traditional finance.
I went “all in” on digital assets, learned everything I could, and eventually became an authority and international lecturer on the topic of U.S. regulation of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.  The law firm even got into mining Bitcoin.

Our pivot toward blockchain disruptors paid off. Our clientele came to include most major crypto exchanges in the U.S. as well as blockchain infrastructure providers and gaming platforms. By 2021, we had grown into offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco.

We were honored when the law firm was recognized by US News/Best Lawyers in America as the “Law Firm of the Year” in Securities Regulation for 2021 and 2022.

This recognition was unprecedented for a relatively small law firm that had been around for only 10 years.  I have been honored to be recognized as the Securities Regulation Lawyer of the Year in the Richmond, Virginia market for a number of years.

I founded my current firm, James A. Murphy, PLLC in 2022.  We focus on advocating for the digital asset industry and those who are targeted by the government.