Colleagues and family pay tribute after death of well-respected lawyer Brendan Murphy KC

Brendan Murphy KC has been remembered as a street-smart lawyer who stood up to Victoria Police in the Lawyer X Royal Commission.

Brendan Murphy KC was a well respected lawyer.

Brendan Murphy KC – “the barrister’s barrister” – was a man who spent a lifetime in the law fighting the good fight, colleagues and family say.

Mr Murphy, who died this week aged 80, knew his profession back to front but also had street-smarts and strong principles which drove him into dangerous territory.

Son Ben, also a barrister, recalled this week how, in 1978, his dad took one of those steps.

Mr Murphy, a staunch Catholic, was deeply concerned about a Melbourne priest who was abusing children in his care and decided to do something about it.

He and a magistrate, Bryan Cosgriff, drove to the Raheen mansion in Kew, then the home of Melbourne’s Archbishop, who was at the time Frank Little.

It is said that what followed was a terse meeting which, ultimately, led to no action being taken against the priest.

Archbishop Little would later deny knowledge of the meeting but it was beyond contest that two decades later, child sex offences were proven against the priest, who by then had been moved from one unknowing flock to another.

“He swam against the tide to call out what was wrong. He was truly a barrister’s barrister,” Ben Murphy said of his father.

For years, Mr Murphy was at the sharp end of criminal law in Melbourne, working on a multitude of high-stakes briefs.

They included the inquest into Donald McKay, the Faraday Primary School kidnappings, the trial of killer hit-run driver Thomas Towle and a key member of the Tony Mokbel drug empire.

Channel 9 once engaged him to fight an order that banned broadcast of its Underbelly television series.

In 2019, at the other end of his career, willingness to rail against the powerful surfaced again.

Mr Murphy – who had earlier served as the state’s first Public Interest Monitor – was a key member of the Lawyer X Royal Commission legal team, representing Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in court challenges where clients of former barrister Nicola Gobbo were trying to have convictions thrown out.

Mr Murphy was a key member of the Lawyer X Royal Commission legal team.

But he would grow concerned about the level of Victoria Police requests to suppress material.

Mr Murphy said so and was removed from the role.

“What I learnt from dad, you didn’t learn in a textbook. He swam against the tide to call out what was wrong and did everything possible to protect his clients’ interests,” Ben Murphy said.

“He held his obligations to the court in the highest regard. He would not let his instructions get in the way of that.”

Barrister and colleague Kyle McDonald said this week that Mr Murphy gained a “fearsome reputation” in five decades at the bar.

“It was an absolute fact that Murphy was fearless in acting for his clients, and he never took a backward step no matter what any Bench might say to him or about him,” Mr McDonald said.

“It was frankly inspiring and ever-so-slightly intimidating to see him in full flight, and an example to the rest of us when we might falter and doubt our clients’ cases.”

Ben Murphy said his father was deeply respected as a man, not just a lawyer.

“He had a fantastic sense of humour and gave so much of his time without fee and without any fuss. He was well-liked right across the board and rightly so.”