Finance attorney crashes through Milwaukee’s glass ceiling
Ann Murphy actually blushes when she’s asked about whether she feels like a pioneer for becoming the first woman to hold such a prominent position at one of Milwaukee’s major law firms.
If she’s not too comfortable talking about her own achievements, those achievements speak volumes by themselves.
Murphy recently was named the managing partner of Quarles & Brady’s Milwaukee office, overseeing 200 employees at the firm.
"I think I’m too young to be a pioneer," Murphy says. "I never would have expected this. But I am very touched that receptionists and other women have been very supportive of me and are encouraging me, and I feel very proud of that. It’s very touching to me."
Still, you don’t hear Murphy making noise about shattering the glass ceiling that is finally falling from above at Milwaukee’s large law firms.
When Murphy first started at Quarles & Brady in 1979, fresh out of college, she was only the eighth woman to join the firm as an attorney.
Today, she’s a member of the company’s executive committee and has a strong role in making sure the firm hires additional women and minorities.
"That’s a focus of mine, but the firm been very supportive," she says.
Not bad, considering her humble beginnings growing up on a dairy farm in Lake Geneva and becoming the first member of her family to graduate from college.
"Growing up on a farm, it was a lot hard work," Murphy says. "It was a good experience for life and taught you to work together as a team in an enterprise."
Along the way in her career, Murphy has developed expertise in tax-exempt finance and commercial lending at Quarles & Brady, which provides counsel on litigation, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment, estate planning, real estate, public financing and other general corporate matters for clients ranging from small entrepreneurial businesses to Fortune 500 companies.
Some of the most rewarding moments of her career have involved helping public projects or individual companies obtain financing to expand.
Murphy helped the Wisconsin Humane Society gain the financing it needed to build its new complex on West Wisconsin Avenue, and helped the Milwaukee Public Museum obtain the financing for its revamping, which included the butterfly exhibit.
That kind of "real world" impact is what drives Murphy, who initially attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with plans to become a social worker.
"I guess I always wanted to work with people and solve problems. I really enjoy the practice, I do, because you see things being built that weren’t there before – things like additions being built to manufacturing facilities and jobs being created and people working," she says.
Murphy says the legal profession is much more fast-paced today than it was when she first began her career.
Quarles & Brady has grown through acquisitions, and Murphy expects that trend to continue in a competitive industry where the inertia of numbers can mean the difference in obtaining major clients.
As the law firm has grown, its stable of clients has expanded to include such blue-chip players as the United Parcel Service, General Electric, and Bank One.
"We’ve really become more of a national firm," Murphy says. "We don’t grow for the sake of growing, but when it makes sense for the firm."
The recession of the past year has taken the starch out of Quarles & Brady’s merger-and-acquisition practice, but spurred growth in other areas for the firm, Murphy says. The diversity of services will be key to the company’s future growth, she says.
"M&A activity has been down, but the bankruptcy part of our practice is very busy, the litigation and the labor and employment practice has been busy," she says.
In recent years, the notion of non-legal professionals and companies becoming partial owners of legal firms has gained momentum. However, that movement has been tripped up by the recent rash of American corporate scandals.
Just as well, Murphy says.
"I guess I’m not real supportive of that. In spite of all the lawyer jokes you hear, the lawyers I deal with have the utmost in integrity," she says. "I really like the idea of law firms being owned by lawyers. I’m not quite sure how it would be if there were a change."
While commercial lending has been slow in the recession, Murphy remains optimistic that the economy is ready to rebound.
"I see it picking up a little bit in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, it seems like there’s quite a bit more activity," she says.
Patrick Ryan, who will soon be promoted from vice chairman to chairman of Quarles & Brady, has known Murphy since she started at the firm and is not surprised she has climbed to higher ranks than any woman before her.
"She has been a real contributor. She has good judgment. One of the strongest things I can say about Ann is that our partners trust her, because she’s smart. She thinks things through," Ryan says. "As a practicing lawyer, Ann is an excellent lawyer."
Ryan says Murphy is blazing a trail for other women sure to rise in the ranks in Milwaukee’s legal circles.
"I think it’s symbolic. In the last few years, more than 50% of our hires were women," Ryan said. "It took those women some time to climb the ladder."
Nov. 22, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
