Attorney/Investigator Trish Murphy is the founder of Northwest Workplace Law PLLC, based in Seattle, Washington. Since graduating from law school in 1996, Trish has focused exclusively on impartial investigations, employment law, and labor relations.
Trish devotes the majority of her practice to conducting independent investigations of workplace, higher ed, and Title IX complaints. She conducts investigations on topics ranging from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation to general misconduct, ethics violations, and bullying. Clients rely on her to ensure a thorough and impartial process with clear, carefully reasoned findings that help them make well-informed decisions. Trish takes care to treat all involved with dignity, respect, and sensitivity. Her investigative experience spans more than 300 cases, a broad array of industries, diverse workforces and cultures, union and nonunion workplaces, individuals at all organizational levels, and issues of widely varying scope, complexity, and seriousness.
Trish is an Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH), a certified Title IX investigator, and a licensed private investigator in Washington and Oregon. She was President of the Northwest Association of Title IX Administrators from 2021-22.
She also has served as a Contributing Editor for Bloomberg’s labor law treatise, The Developing Labor Law, since 2015.
Trish earned her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, where she was an Editor of the Washington Law Review and received the 1996 Mary Ellen Krug Award for excellence in labor and employment law. Trish has held a number of professional leadership positions, including Chair of the King County Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section and Chair of the Pacific Coast Labor and Employment Law Conference.
- University of Washington School of Law
- J.D. (1996) | labor and employment law
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- Honors: Mary Ellen Krug Award
- Activities: Washington Law Review
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- University of Washington
- B.A. (1993)
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- Honors: magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
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- Attorney/Investigator
- Northwest Workplace Law PLLC
- Current
- The Right to Use Employers' Email to Discuss Workplace Issues
- King County Bar Bulletin
- Challenges at the Intersection of the NLRA and an Employer's Obligation to Investigate
- King County Bar Bulletin
- The ADA, FMLA, and FLSA: Why Employers Need Job Descriptions
- King County Bar Bulletin
- Workplace Investigations for a Unionized Workforce, 47th Collective Bargaining and Arbitration Conference
- LERA, Northwest Chapter
- Best Practices for Effective Credibility Assessments
- NWATIXA
- Investigative Interviews and Evidence Gathering, Seattle, WA
- WAPELRA
- Workplace Investigations, Seattle, WA
- Association of Workplace Investigators
- Ethical Issues in Employment Investigations, Pacific Northwest Workplace Forum
- Jackson Lewis
- Civil Rights Investigator Level 4 Certification (Due Process)
- ATIXA
- SPHR
- HR Certification Institute
- AWI-CH
- Association of Workplace Investigators
- SHRM-SCP
- Society of Human Resources Management
- Civil Rights Investigator Level 3 Certification (Sexual Violence)
- ATIXA
- K-12 Civil Rights Investigator Certification
- ATIXA
- Title IX Hearing Officer and Decision Maker Certification
- ATIXA
- Title IX Regulations Implementation Certification
- ATIXA
- Civil Rights Investigator Level 4 Certification (Advanced Interviewing)
- ATIXA
- Civil Rights Investigator Level 2 Certification (Advanced)
- ATIXA
- Title IX Hearing Chair Certification
- ATIXA
- Investigation Report Writing Certification
- ATIXA
- 504/ADA Coordinator Certification
- ATIXA
- Gender Equity Foundations for Higher Education Certification
- ATIXA
- Excellence in Collaboration
- Microsoft
- Mary Ellen Krug Award
- King County Bar Association
- Association of Workplace Investigators
- Member
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- American Bar Association
- Member
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- Association of Title IX Administrators
- Member
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- King County Bar Association
- Member
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- Society for Human Resource Management
- Member
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- Northwest Association of Title IX Administrators
- President
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- Washington State Bar # 26533
- Member
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- Pacific Coast Labor & Employment Law Conference Planning Committee
- Subcommittee Chair
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- King County Bar Association Labor & Employment Section
- Trustee
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- King County Bar Association Labor & Employment Section
- Section Chair
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- Pacific Coast Labor & Employment Law Conference Planning Committee
- Chair
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- Oregon
- Oregon State Bar
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- Washington
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- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
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Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
Contact for details
- Employment Law
- Employment Contracts, Employment Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
- Independent Investigations
- Labor Law
- English: Spoken, Written