After she finished presiding over her first jury trial, Judge Mary Murphy asked the members of her jury if they would mind posing for a group picture to commemorate the occasion. They were happy to oblige. When she came down to pose alongside them, the presiding juror took one look and gave his assessment: “You look taller on the bench.”

            She may look taller, but Judge Murphy admits she doesn’t feel any taller on the bench.

            “This job is very humbling,” she said. “It’s nothing like you would expect. Everything that I’m doing is something I’ve never done before.”

            In private practice, Judge Murphy specialized in high-technology intellectual property cases. Because intellectual property cases are typically filed in federal court rather than state court, she has had to deal primarily with new fields of law -- from medical malpractice and commercial disputes to workers’ compensation and asbestos cases. At times the cases tread more familiar terrain: she has heard a number of requests for injunctive relief arising out of trade secret disputes, which are filed in state court. But these cases present their own kind of problem.

            “Sometimes it’s dangerous when the law is familiar, because I think I know more than I do,” Judge Murphy explained. “With the new things, I have to begin at the beginning, with what the law is, not how I think the case should go.”

            She has also gained a new perspective on conflicts between lawyers. “As a lawyer, I used to want the judge to whack the other side over the head. As a judge, I have to step back and look at the situation more objectively.”

            Before running for the 14th District Court, Judge Murphy was a partner at Jenkens & Gilchrist and in her own specialty firm, Rochelle Hutcheson & Murphy. She served as a Civil Courts Master and entertained some thoughts of being appointed to the bench one day. But she never seriously thought about running for office until recently.

             “I never intended to run for the bench, not in my wildest dreams. After being asked different times by different people to consider running, something made me stop and think about it. Something in my heart said that this was the right time.”

            Judge Murphy decided to run against Judge John Marshall, who had presided over the 14th District Court for twenty years. She won the Republican primary in 2000 and took office in January of this year.

            After six months on the bench, Judge Murphy has found the most enjoyable part of being a judge has been “working with the juries.”

            “One of the best things about this job is watching the jury system work. They take their work very seriously. They almost become a family unit.”

            She recalled one trial in which the jurors reported that they had reached a verdict but asked for ten more minutes so that they could exchange phone numbers.

            “It’s a very serious job, but I insist that everyone maintain a sense of humor, so that we can all get through the day.”

            Not everyone agrees that Judge Murphy has retained her sense of humor. Her sons Ted, 14, and Mark, 10, complain that “I’ve gotten too boring as a mom. They’re mad that I won’t let them wrap houses any more.”         

            Balancing her new job and her family is a challenge but not an insurmountable one. To some extent, spending time with her family has been simplified by the fact that “so much of this job is reading. I can do a lot of the work at home.” She and her husband – Thompson & Knight partner Greg Huffman – included the boys in the decision-making process before she ever committed to running.

            “We made the choice as a family, and it turned out to be a very positive experience for them,” Judge Murphy said. “I was always prepared to lose, because you have to be prepared to lose. In fact I expected to lose. It just never entered the boys’ minds that I could lose. They were absolutely convinced that I would win.”