A central concern of the Court has been the quality of legal representation provided to litigants, including indigent parties.

Toward this end, the Court has helped establish clinical and continuing legal education programs for law students and practicing lawyers, including a clinical program in Child Advocacy at Columbia University School of Law, a clinical Family Law project at New York Law School and an Appellate Practice course at the Cardoza School of Law. Numerous programs in ethics, criminal law and family law are conducted in conjunction with Fordham University School of Law and the New York County Lawyers’ Association. The Court has also published many treatises exploring issues of family and criminal law from the practitioners’ perspective.

Presiding Justice Murphy assisted in founding the Lawyers’ Alcoholism Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York County Lawyers’ Association. He was also instrumental in establishing a Family Counseling and Alcohol Counseling Program in New York City’s Family Court.