James A. Murphy: Here at Murphy & McGonigle, our focus is on representing companies in the financial services industry. Specifically, that means commercial banks in the U.S. and abroad, investment banks, securities brokerage firms, hedge funds and private equity. We also represent stock markets and exchanges, along with public companies of all kinds and their officers, directors and boards in securities litigation and white collar criminal cases. Murphy & McGonigle is a different kind of law firm. When we started in 2010, we designed it from the ground up to be an efficient and bureaucracy free place, where our lawyers could focus on one thing: delivering world class service to our clients. We embrace technology to help us deliver solutions that are faster and just plain better. We started with just 14 lawyers in 2010 and have grown to 45 lawyers today. It's fair to say we have maintained a very high bar for talent. We have several attorneys who previously worked at the SEC, many of them in senior positions in enforcement and trading and markets. Others previously served in senior positions at the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, FINRA, and the CFTC. We also have lawyers who served in senior positions within large financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS and MasterCard. So our goal was to build an all-star team of legal talent here, and we are well on our way. The pace of innovation in the financial services sphere is faster than ever. As financial services firms expand their digital offerings, they need specialized advice from lawyers who are comfortable on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. We advise on a myriad of regulatory issues, from Blockchain applications to new digital products for clients who are looking for a trusted partner that can help them seize new opportunities through innovation. We even have an innovation lab of our own, where we create faster, more efficient solutions for our clients through technology. We create interactive databases that leverage client and law firm data for better insights leading to better decisions. We design legal apps and have hired our own full-time computer coder. It's an exciting time to be a trusted advisor to our clients that are leading the wave of innovation in financial services. From a culture perspective, diversity and inclusion has been a core value since the day we started, and we have a sincere devotion to meaningful community service. We are immensely grateful to our clients, who've called on us since the beginning to help them meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.
A Message from the Chairman
This year we celebrate our firm’s 10-year anniversary. Time does, indeed, fly by. We started the firm in 2010 with 14 lawyers, a sense of optimism and a handful of core values. Those core values included: (1) an unwavering commitment to the best interests of our clients; (2) recruiting and developing an All-Star team of lawyers by maintaining a very high bar for talent; (3) driving positive change in our communities; (4) making Diversity & Inclusion a priority; and (5) maintaining a collegial working environment free of bureaucracy. While we have now grown to over 50 lawyers, I am happy to report that we still live these same core values.
Consistent with our theme of Looking Forward, a few thoughts on what we see on the horizon in financial services. We see the tempo of change increasing at a rate never before seen in the financial services industry. We see clients developing and implementing innovative business models leveraging the latest technologies to seize opportunities in the marketplace. New technologies are also being deployed to improve the quality and efficiency of risk management and compliance functions. We see more research and development of blockchain-based businesses and internal corporate functions, with a future likely to include tokenization of assets of all types. The end result looks increasingly likely to be a more efficient, responsive and overall better experience for customers large and small, including for communities that have had limited access to traditional financial services. We see that enhanced customer experience delivered by an industry that is structurally more efficient and resilient. In other words, the possibilities are indeed limitless.
We were honored to be selected again this year by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers as a National Tier 1 Law Firm in Securities Regulation and Litigation–Securities. We are the only boutique law firm in the country to be so honored.
We look back at our first 10 years and look forward to the possibilities on the horizon with a deep sense of gratitude. We are grateful first and foremost to our clients, who continue to place their trust and confidence in us by calling on our team to handle some of their most important and sensitive legal matters. We never lose sight of the fact that we must earn that trust and confidence every day. And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the outstanding work of our administrative staff, who collectively enable us to deliver excellent value to our clients while making this such a great place to work.
On behalf of all the lawyers and staff at Murphy & McGonigle, we thank you for your continued support.
James A. Murphy, Chairman