Bob, a co-founder of the firm and its Managing Director since inception, retired from the Firm and the practice of law at the end of December 2023. He is now engaged in mediating and arbitrating maritime disputes and mediating personal injury claims, contractual disputes, and other matters.

A native of Chicago, Bob is a graduate of the University of Dayton and Loyola University Law School.  He practiced at another New Orleans law firm upon graduation before founding Murphy Rogers in 1992.  He has been an active trial lawyer throughout his career, and he was awarded the honor of Distinguished Maritime Lawyer by the New Orleans Bar Association in 2013.

Bob’s practice primarily focused on admiralty and maritime claims, commercial litigation, casualty defense, class actions, products liability cases, gaming litigation, insurance defense, and insurance coverage issues.

Bob has served as an arbitrator in several marine construction and ship building contract disputes and, since receiving his Certification from the Harvard Negotiation Institute in 2012, he has been involved in numerous mediations, primarily focused on maritime disputes, personal injury claims, and wrongful deaths.

Bob has an extensive list of past publications, including: "The Employer's Legal Liability to a Seaman for Injuries", Greater New Orleans Barge Fleeting Association 2010 River and Marine Industry; "Choice of Forum", High Stakes on the High Seas, Louisiana Association for Justice Law Conference, August 2010; "Louisiana State Court: Maritime Forum for the 90's", Tulane Seminar on Maritime Law in the 1990's, Sept. 1994; "Prosecution of the Foreign Seaman's Claim in American Courts – The Defendant's Perspective," Tulane Seminar on Maritime Law in the 1990's, Nov. 1993; "The Jones Act: Constriction of Remedies/Expansion of Status," Tulane University's Eleventh New Orleans Maritime Seminar, January 1992; "Admiralty, 1983 Fifth Circuit Symposium," 29 Loyola Law Review 537, 1983; "Maritime Wrongful Death and Survival Actions," 22 Loyola Law Review 646, 1976.

He is a member of the Louisiana, Illinois, Federal and American Bar Associations as well as the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the American Judicature Society, the Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute, the Mariners Club of the Port of New Orleans, and the American Waterways Operators.

State Bar Admissions

• Louisiana, 1977

• Illinois, 1977

Court Admissions

• All Louisiana State Courts

• U.S. Supreme Court

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana

• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana

Education

• Loyola University Law School

J.D., 1977

Other honors: Managing Editor of Loyola Law Review (1976-1977), Member of Loyola Law Review (1975-1977)

• University of Dayton

B.A., 1973

• Harvard Law School, Harvard Negotiation Institute, 2012