Michael Murphy joined the Duke Law faculty in 2023, teaching in the Start-Up Ventures Clinic. He teaches students how to provide transactional legal services to entrepreneurs and small businesses, using a unique perspective based on his experience working as an attorney for a large law firm, a startup, and a publicly traded corporation. His research explores social entrepreneurship, how technology changes legal practice, and how members of the legal profession can lead happier lives.
Before joining Duke Law, Murphy was a Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer at Penn Law, teaching in its Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic. Prior to teaching full-time, he was an in-house attorney at SEI Investments Company, where he was responsible for the negotiation of outsourcing agreements for SEI’s technology platform. He also created an Electronic Discovery course at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where he taught as an Adjunct Professor, and has taught continuing legal education courses to practicing attorneys about the intersection of technology and legal practice.
Murphy is a past recipient of Blank Rome LLP’s Pro Bono Hero Award in 2014 for work on behalf of senior citizens and past Co-Chair of “The Dude Hates Cancer,” an annual charity bowling tournament benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, through which he has helped raise over $775,000 to fight blood cancers. He is an award-winning storyteller whose stories have been featured on First Person Arts’s “#US” podcast, WHYY-Philadelphia’s “NewsWorks Tonight” and “CommonSpace” podcast, and WNYC’s “The Takeaway,” and is a stand-up comedian and comedic improviser.
Michael sits on the board of advisors for Digistream Investigations, a national provider of investigative services, and is the Treasurer of the Clinical Legal Education Association, a nationwide advocacy group for clinical law educators.
Michael lives in Durham and Philadelphia with his wife Megan and two mischievous dogs, Little Ann and Spock.
