Joseph Murphy

Joseph T. Murphy, partner at Clifford Law Offices, comes with a great deal of experience in the law since he was sworn in Illinois in 2012. He formerly was a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney and served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he prosecuted misdemeanor and felony offenses in federal court. He also previously served as chief of federal litigation for the 101st Airborne Division while serving as an attorney and Captain in the U.S. Army.

Joe is involved in many complex, high-profile cases, including serving as lead attorney in the November 2023 Yellow Line CTA crash, in which he represents several injured victims. In 2026, Joe was part of the team that obtained a $60 million result on behalf of a 31-year-old woman rendered paraplegic in an unsafe highway road construction zone accident. In February 2024, he was part of the team to obtain a $6.47 million record medical malpractice verdict on behalf of a 58-year-old man who suffered debilitating injuries due to a malpositioned hip implant.

Joe is also one of the Chicago aviation lawyers at Clifford Law Offices, working on the 2019 crash of a Boeing jet. Joe was part of the team that obtained a $27 million settlement for a girl who suffered serious, permanent injuries during delivery. In October 2023, Joe worked alongside partner Richard F. Burke, Jr to obtain an $11 million settlement on behalf of a child who was killed and two other occupants seriously injured in a rear-end collision. Also in October 2023, Joe and partners obtained a verdict of $10.2 million on behalf of a 49-year-old man whose right leg was amputated as a result of medical malpractice.

Joe became a lawyer to help people, learning this from a long family line of lawyers and judges. Joe also serves as a U.S. Army Reserve Officer. Joe enjoys being active in the legal community and has served as an investigator on the judicial evaluation committee for the Chicago Bar Association since 2019.