Betty Murphy, the longtime leader of the labor and employment practice at Baker & Hostetler and the only person ever to have served as chair of the National Labor Relations Board and the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the Labor Department, succumbed to pneumonia on Oct. 16. She was 77.
Murphy was sworn in as chair of the NLRB in 1975 after spending a year as the administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division under President Richard Nixon. While at the NLRB, Murphy led substantial increase in the board’s productivity, increasing it by 30 and issued a record number of cases in the shortest period of time in the history of the agency, according to a profile published on Penn State University’s Web site. When Murphy stepped down from the NLRB in 1979, she was praised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and the National Association of Manufacturers for her “outstanding contributions.”
In a 1996 profile by the D.C. Bar, Murphy said of her time on the NLRB, “I had ruled against everybody, but I had no agenda. Sometimes I was wrong, of course. When I dissented, many of my decisions were adopted by the Courts of Appeals. In any event, I felt honored that, after I resigned, business and labor said the same things about me they had said at my confirmation hearing.”
According to a 2007 profile published by American University’s Washington College of Law, where Murphy earned her J.D. in 1958, she was offered a seat on the D.C. Circuit by President Ronald Reagan but turned him down because “she wanted to stay involved in Republican politics and do other things.”
In addition to her jobs at the NLRB and the DOL, Murphy has received five additional presidential appointments, including the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. In 1997, she was the first lawyer in private practice to be elected to the National Academy of Human Resources.
Murphy joined Baker & Hostetler in 1980 and was quickly named as chair of the firm’s labor and employment law practice. Her practice was unusual in that she represented both labor organizations and unions as well as management.
“Betty was better than anyone I’ve seen at building bridges between labor and management and employees and companies. She did that by having a deep understanding of the dignity people deserve in the workplace, regardless of their position,” said David Grant, a partner at Baker & Hostetler who was the first associate Murphy hired in 1980. Grant said that Murphy maintained an active practice up until her death.
She was born in East Orange, N.J. in 1933 and brought up in Atlantic City with two brothers. A descendent of three members of Congress from the state of New Jersey, Murphy was known for being quiet in manner but for having exceptional energy and competence. In a 1972 article on her in Time magazine, Murphy used those qualities to earn a “nationwide reputation and a $40,000 income in a highly competitive field.”
Murphy was a well known figure in Washington’s labor and employment law circle, receiving numerous honors for her work in that field. In 2006, she received the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 1996, the D.C. Bar named her one of 24 “Legends in the Law” for her “prominence in the profession” and her “individual impact on the law and the legal profession.”
Murphy received the U.S. Information Service’s Award for Outstanding Service for her “contribution to international understanding and the foreign policy of the United States.” She was an appointee to the Mediation Panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization and serves on the International Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association and is a member of the Board.
Murphy is survived by her husband Dr. Cornelius Murphy, her children Ann and Cornelius Jr. and a grandson, Samuel Southard Hernly.
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