Murphy & Evertz | Attorneys at Law

Call 714-277-1700 For More Information

Murphy & Evertz | Attorneys at Law

Because Results Count

  1. Home
    2.  » About

Attorneys With A Strong Reputation For Deep Technical Knowledge, Experience And Courtroom Success

Murphy & Evertz is a uniquely focused, results-oriented law firm – a firm with a solid state-wide reputation and an emerging national reputation. We are recognized for technical mastery of eminent domain and land use litigation. The attorneys at our firm have compiled an unparalleled track record of state-wide success.

More About The Leadership Team

Managing partner John Murphy, among the most recognized and successful figures in California eminent domain, focuses his practice exclusively on eminent domain, inverse condemnation and other complex jury trials. He has earned a state-wide and an emerging national reputation representing a wide variety of public agencies, corporations, and landowners.

Mr. Murphy and his firm have earned the largest owners’ awards in California for each of the past several years.  These awards amount to well over $300 million over the past ten years.

He has served as lead trial counsel in numerous significant, successful jury trials. He speaks regularly on eminent domain issues throughout the country, and his cases have garnered significant press coverage. He has been the subject of three Los Angeles Daily Journal profiles and has been featured on the cover of both Verdicts and Settlements and the Daily Journal. Mr. Murphy’s jury victories include one of the largest verdicts ($14.6 million) ever obtained in Marin County Superior Court.  Recent victories earned by Mr. Murphy for landowner clients include a $23 million award (2021); a $48 million award (2019); a $42.7 million award (2015) and a $15.4 million award (2013).

Mr. Murphy has been chosen repeatedly for inclusion in the definitive legal directory, Best Lawyers in America – – most recently for 2024 – – in two practice areas: eminent domain law and real estate law.  From 2006 – 2024, the Los Angeles Times has featured Mr. Murphy in its articles, “Southern California’s Best Lawyers.”  Los Angeles magazine has listed him repeatedly in Southern California Super Lawyers. Orange Coast magazine has included him for years (2007 – 2024) in its feature, “Top Attorneys in Orange County.”

Best Lawyers in America, the nation’s oldest and most respected legal peer-review publication, honored Mr. Murphy in 2012 as its “Orange County Litigation – Real Estate Lawyer of The Year.”  Mr. Murphy was also named one of the “Top 50 in Orange County” lawyers for 2012 by Southern California’s Super Lawyers magazine.

Partner Douglas Evertz has compiled a similarly remarkable record of litigation successes. He specializes in complex real estate litigation matters including eminent domain, inverse condemnation, land use, CEQA, water and redevelopment. He has been featured in Best Lawyers list in America from 2018 – 2020 in the area of Real Estate Law, and in Southern California Super Lawyers list from 2018 – 2020 in the areas of Eminent Domain and Land Use/Zoning.

Over his career, Mr. Evertz has represented a number of cities, counties, water districts and school districts in connection with major public agency acquisitions/public works projects. He has also represented a number of commercial and industrial property owners and business owners in lawsuits filed by Caltrans and other local governments associated with work on Interstate 5, Interstate 10, Interstate 15, and Interstate 215. Clients include small family owned businesses, Fortune 500 Companies and nonprofit organizations, including churches.

Our team of lawyers at Murphy & Evertz is one of the most sophisticated, focused and experienced teams of eminent domain and land use litigators in the western United States. To learn more about each attorney’s background and credentials, you can read more by following the links below: