A native of India, Murthy and her husband, photographer and media specialist Vasant Nayak, established the MurthyNayak Foundation to channel their philanthropic contributions to nonprofits that serve the needs of women, children, and immigrants, particularly in education and health care.

[1] The family lived in modest circumstances, especially in her early years, and moved often as her father was posted to new assignments throughout India.

[6] During college at Stella Maris, Murthy says her interest in social justice led to her involvement in anti-dowry marches and other work to secure the rights of women and girls.

[4] She spent the next year teaching French at the Alliance Française[6] and the Institute of Hotel Management in Bangalore, while she awaited the results of her Harvard application.

Around the same time, she met her future husband, Vasant Nayak, when she attended his photo exhibition at the Alliance Française.

[11][13] At the same time, Murthy was developing expertise in immigration law, forced to learn it as she went through the protracted bureaucratic process—four years, in her case—to secure green cards for herself and her husband.

[17][13][18] Eventually she moved to a tiny office in Owings Mills, Maryland that included a photocopier and receptionist that she shared with several other businesses.

[19] Murthy was initially skeptical about the value of online communication, but she credits her husband for convincing her to grow her business via the Internet.

[24] Beyond her online presence, Murthy further raised her stature by writing about immigration law and serving frequently as a commentator for professional publications and seminars.

[1][25] In 1999, Murthy became actively involved with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA),[25] and has taken several leadership roles in that organization over the years.

But, as time went on, she recognized that this was unreasonable, and that her employees "...needed to have a healthy work life balance and had all the right to go back to their kids and families.

In 2001, Murthy and her husband established the MurthyNayak Foundation to channel their financial resources into socially transformative projects designed to improve the lives of women, children, and immigrants in their native India and in their adopted homeland, the United States.

In December 2017, Murthy was named the president of the Washington, D.C. chapter (representing the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia) of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

[1] During the awards ceremony, the children and staff of the school performed an original musical production showcasing Murthy's life.