After law school, he clerked for Judge David Thomas Lewis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 1972 to 1973.
Upon completion of his clerkship, he entered private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah with Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough.
He served on the Utah Judicial Council Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution and chaired the Judicial Oversight Committee in Child Support Guidelines in 1988 as well as chairing the State Advisory Committee on Child Support Guidelines.
[3] On July 25, 1995, Murphy was nominated by President Bill Clinton for a vacancy on the bench for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
The full opinion can be found here Held: Oklahoma's ban on non-resident petition circulators violates the First Amendment.
[12] Held: The Government can invoke the Freedom of Information Act's personal privacy exemption even though it previously disclosed the records during a public trial.