Dennis Murphy's clients describe him as a lawyer who prepares his cases tirelessly and relishes courtroom combat.

"Dennis is absolutely fabulous as far as I am concerned. He is one of the most thorough lawyers I've ever worked with at any level in any capacity," said Nina Thomson, the former chief counsel of the Assembly Rules Committee. "He hates to lose, and he leaves nothing to chance."

Thomson, who worked with Murphy as a witness for the Assembly in a series of sexual harassment cases, said Murphy would appear at depositions with binders containing deposition summaries for each witness that he had personally prepared and organized. When a question arose about prior testimony, Murphy could immediately point to the exact page and line number. "He was like his own computer," Thomson said.

Thomson said Murphy's competitiveness is the byproduct of his athletic experiences. Murphy played offensive line for UCLA from 1965 to 1967, a football career that included a trip to the Rose Bowl in his sophomore year. In his senior year, the Bruins, led by quarterback Gary Beban, who won the Heisman that year, lost their chance to go to the Rose Bowl when O.J. Simpson scored a touchdown on a 64-yard run to give USC a 21-20 victory. Murphy also played rugby for the U.S. Eagles Rugby team in 1976 and 1977 and later played for America's Senior Rugby team. Pictures from Murphy's athletic career adorn the walls of his office at Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP.

Hartley Hansen of Hansen, Boyd, Culhane & Watson calls Murphy "a tough guy" who "fits the mold" of the former football player that he is. "Dennis said when he gets out on the field of play he doesn't care if you're his best friend, he'll knock you on your ass. And that's how he practices law. He's a hard charger, and once you're off the field of play you're friends again."

Strange as it may seem for a litigator, Murphy almost chose a more mild-mannered career: engineering. Murphy earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from UCLA, but a summer internship left him feeling less than excited about being an engineer. Then a family friend suggested that Murphy would be well suited for a legal career because he spoke well in public. Murphy took this advice, staying at UCLA to obtain his law degree in 1971.

Murphy likely would not have become a labor lawyer but for a fortuitous circumstance. He had not intended to become an employment lawyer and had not taken any classes in the subject in law school. However, in his first assignment for a Century City law firm, Murphy was asked to draft an appellate brief on a labor law issue. Subsequently, he drafted a successful petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court in the same case.

The labor law bug soon bit, and Murphy has practiced employment law ever since. "What I really like about it is you get to learn about different people's businesses and how they run," he said.

Murphy practiced employment law in Southern California until he joined Sacramento's Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan in 1977. He stayed with that firm until its closure. The largest group of former Diepenbrock lawyers formed Murphy Austin, which opened its doors on January 1, 1999.

Murphy's 30 years as a lawyer have coincided with the dramatic transformation of employment law from mainly an area of law focused on union-management relations to its present focus on discrimination and harassment. In the early days of his career, Murphy recalled, he would carry a box of index cards to court with him containing summaries of significant employment law precedents. "I've gone from carrying cases in a box to where I am not strong enough to carry it all without a computer," he said.

Two of Murphy's most notable cases have involved representing the Assembly. In Holman v. Connolly, an employee in Assembly member Tom Connolly's San Diego office accused him of sexual harassment. The plaintiff made the sensational charge that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown had been involved in a cover-up of the harassment in order to get Connolly elected. Murphy represented the Assembly in a trial in San Diego County.

Thomson, who had investigated the plaintiff's charge, spent six days on the witness stand testifying. She recalled that the case received enormous publicity from the Bay Area media because Brown was running for mayor of San Francisco. Despite the added pressure from the media attention, Thomson said that Murphy "never got side-tracked into the political realm and so whatever distractions or diversions were sent his way he always kept his eye on the ball, to use a sports analogy, which he frequently does."

After six weeks of trial, the jury in Holman rendered a defense verdict in two hours.

The second high-profile case that Murphy defended for the Assembly was Boyd v. Conroy, in which an aide to Assembly member Mickey Conroy claimed that he had harassed her. The jury in that case found that Conroy and his chief of staff had not committed sexual harassment but had negligently inflicted emotional distress on the staff member. The mixed verdict left both sides publicly claiming victory, and the case concluded in a $360,000 settlement.

In another career highlight, Murphy argued before the United States Supreme Court in Concrete Pipe and Products v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust, 508 U.S. 602 (1993), a case involving interpretation of the federal Multi-employer Pension Plan Amendments Act.

Hansen, whose firm has been represented by Murphy, called him "probably the best labor lawyer in town. He's not afraid of trial. He tries cases. That's probably from playing football without a helmet. He's very aggressive and very competitive and yet he's smart and he doesn't make many mistakes. We all make mistakes, but he makes very few."

In his free time, Murphy, 54, who has had operations on both knees for injuries suffered playing football and rugby, pursues a wide range of athletic activities, including water skiing and "heli-skiing," in which a helicopter carries the skier to the top of a mountain and picks him up again after he skies to the bottom.

Last year, Murphy decided to take one of his three adult sons sky diving as a birthday present. "The very worst part of it was when you sign the release they have a video of some dumb attorney telling you that if you die it's not going to be their fault," he said with a laugh. It is perhaps needless to report that, notwithstanding the release, Murphy jumped out of the plane.