Somewhere along state administrative judge James Murphy’s perpetual tour of New York state’s 184 court facilities outside New York City, it dawned on him that the court system needed to revive its presence at the state fair.
The fair, one of the oldest and largest in the United States, brings together all corners of the state to Murphy’s hometown of Syracuse. He saw it as a chance for court staff to mingle with the public, attract job applicants and jurists; and develop staff camaraderie.
It was a small gesture for the man who in 2023 took on the responsibility of overseeing about 650 state judges, about 7,000 non-judicial staff employees and 1,800 town and village judges as New York’s First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for courts in 57 counties outside the Big Apple.
But for Murphy, it spoke to the sense of community building and teamwork he loves about managing a massive judicial bureaucracy.
“Collaboration. That is definitely the key word to this administration, and that carries over to our partners in government,” Murphy said.
As Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals Rowan Wilson has turned to the state Legislature as a partner in helping him reform the judiciary — a move that opened up a new policy-making dimension for Murphy. As the head of a network of administrative judges, part of his role is to proactively advise top court brass and legislators on how to fine-tune judicial reform bills to be practical for court staff.
This approach to policy is a departure from previous court administrations. While Murphy’s job still involves reporting back on basic operations like spotting and improving crumbling or leaking courthouses, a problem in various facilities across the state, he also conveys information about incoming changes both up and down the judicial system.
His trajectory to this position began as a county executive and lawyer representing local governments even before he joined the bench and became an administrative judge. When Murphy was elected as a Republican to become Onondaga County executive, collaboration often meant reaching across the aisle to solve local problems.
“I was slightly in the majority, but it was by no means an overwhelming majority,” Murphy said. “We collaborated, we worked together.”
Now as a chief administrative judge, collaboration for Murphy means reaching across branches of government. It also means sharing a vision with the other top judicial administrators. The administrative team under Wilson includes Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas and Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Norman St. George, and operates like a family unit.
“We kind of consider ourselves and talk about ourselves as being a family,” Murphy said.
What is the life of someone overseeing a court system spanning 184 different facilities across New York? “There is no average day,” he said.
First thing every morning Murphy finds himself checking emails he got overnight to see if there’s an urgent matter that will drive him to one of his three offices — in Syracuse, Albany, or the Office of Court Administration’s Financial District headquarters in Manhattan. Then he looks out the window, to see if any weather issues could spell an emergency.
“If I’m lucky, I can kind of get myself into the shower and out somewhere around eight o’clock,” when he gets out into the field. He has an alliterative joke he likes to describe his travel pattern: “I’ve been from Mayville to Malone to Montauk.”
“I’ve visited around 50 of the 57 counties. The goal is to get to all of them before summer,” he said before adding that “I don’t think there’s a substitute for that. [The administrative judges] need to be comfortable with me. If they’re not comfortable with me, then emails and things don’t work.”
In the course of making his rounds, he’s considering the systems needs from “technology, equipment, hiring, training, discipline, human resources of staff issues of staff, judicial trial court operation come up all the time, court reporters, interpreters, facility issues, obviously.”
Beyond meeting with his staff, he’s meeting with district attorneys or sheriffs to hear about what’s happening from people “on the ground.”
Outside the court’s needs, Murphy is looking at legislative impacts. That means gathering information on the implementation of new legislation or policy after it takes effect as well as weighing in on proposed legislation as it makes its way through the process.
The latter role, Murphy said, represents a huge break from court administrations of the past, which were largely reactive after legislation passed both houses. Under Wilson, whose recent state of judiciary centered on his intention to work with the Legislature to get judicial reforms over the finish line, court administrators are now tasked with the role of helping to amend and tweak legislation before it is voted on.
“Under the prior administrations, we never really heard about it until it passed both houses. And, and then of course, you’re in the position where really the only thing you’re gonna do is try and lobby the governor to veto it,” Murphy said.
In many cases, these hurdles just boil down to operational or administrative issues, which can potentially be hashed out, so that bills turn into “something that we can support.”
This new approach adds a new dynamic to a role that was already full of challenges. Murphy said that among the biggest issues facing the court system are staffing and training gaps that have persisted since the pandemic when public sector workers across state government left their jobs in droves.
“The great resignation hit us hard,” he said. But even though the court system has begun to fill open positions with new funding, the new hires require training “and most of the people who you would think would be in a position to mentor them are the ones who resigned.”
Facilities issues, on the other hand, often stem from the multifaceted structure of courthouse funding. In many cases where the local municipality is responsible for paying, upgrades or basic repairs get delayed.
“That becomes very problematic,” Murphy said. “We don’t really have the ability or the obligation or duty under the statute. The local city does. Well, cities have financial problems too.”
In response, the Office of Court Administration has revived the long-dormant Capital Facilities Review Board — an entity that pushes municipalities to create a plan for maintaining their own properties.
“It’s hard to think that you’re being treated respectfully if the facility’s falling apart around you,” Murphy said.
Growing up in Syracuse as the son of a lifelong public servant, Murphy said that he gravitated to the law as a way to serve his community. His father Thomas James Murphy, served as Onondaga County Legislator, before being elected to the state Assembly and then the bench as a state supreme court justice.
“We were kind of raised with [the mentality that] if you don’t get involved, then you shouldn’t have an opinion,” Murphy said.
After graduating from the Syracuse University College of Law like his father, Murphy became an assistant district attorney in Onondaga County before going into private practice representing towns and villages for around 20 years. He served as a member of the Onondaga County Legislature for three terms, where he served as chair of the Ways and Means Committees. A vacancy in the Supreme Court, Fifth Judicial District, provided an opportunity to join the bench in 2005.
His path led to court administration in 2007, when he was appointed to be the Supervising Judge for the Town and Village Courts where he oversaw over 200 local justices before becoming Administrative Judge for the entire Fifth Judicial District in 2019.
From county legislator to the bench, Murphy said that each step taught him a little more about how administration boils down to managing a team.
“Overseeing a billion dollar county budget certainly hasn’t hurt me,” he said of his time on the county legislature, adding it was important to “understand that administratively this thing is a behemoth and this is how it has to work. You have to rely on a lot of different people.”
The key administrative skill Murphy said that he learned as a trial judge is knowing that you don’t have all the answers and you have to work with others. “My dad always said this and if I have a mantra, it’s that the truth is always in the middle,” Murphy said.
