LEADING WORKERS COMPENSATION ATTORNEY OPENS HER DOOR TO THE HOMELESS

Wagenfeld Levine Attorney Sharolyn Murphy Changes Women’s Lives

PHILADEPHIA, PA – One of Philadelphia’s most respected workers compensation attorneys is also a personal advocate for the homeless.

For more than 15 years, Sharolyn Murphy, a partner at Wagenfeld Levine’s Philadelphia office, has focused her legal practice on workers compensation defense, litigating high-profile cases throughout Pennsylvania.

And for more than a decade, Murphy has opened her door to the homeless, providing a safe haven for women with nowhere else to go. “This is what my heart tells me to do,” says Murphy, who has been called a “one-woman organization” for the homeless. “I try to get them off drugs or alcohol and find them permanent housing.”

One of Murphy’s success stories is Tracy Jones, a homeless Philadelphia woman who suffered from alcoholism. “She lived with me for several months, and we did a complete rehabilitation program from my apartment,” Murphy says. “By the time we finished, she was able to find a job and move into her own apartment.”

Murphy is currently helping a young girl who needed shelter from an abusive father and a drug-abusing mother. “She’s been with me for a few months,” Murphy says, “and we’re working together on a long-term plan for her care.”

In helping homeless women, Murphy says she uses the same problem-solving and investigative skills she applies to her work as a workers compensation attorney. “I try to determine the real issues involved, and find the best possible solution,” she says.

As manager of Wagenfeld Levine’s Workers Compensation Practice Group in the Philadelphia office, Murphy oversees litigation and client management activities for the multi-state insurance defense firm. With offices in Miami, St. Louis and Philadelphia, Wagenfeld Levine concentrates its practice in representation of self-insured and large retention entities. The three-office firm has a total of 25 attorneys and 42 employees.

Murphy has focused on workers compensation defense throughout her career. “In my first year in law school, I worked as a law clerk for General Motors, helping an in-house attorney who handled workers compensation matters,” she recalls. “It was a perfect fit. I got to see their operations first-hand from the employer’s standpoint. It made an impression on me that has never left.”

Murphy, who is admitted to the bar in Ohio and Pennsylvania, earned her juris doctor (J.D.) degree in 1987 from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. In law school, she received the American Jurisprudence Award for Criminal Practice, the American Jurisprudence Award for Trial Practice, and the John R. Saylor Award for Secured Transactions.

As a senior trial counsel for the Law Offices of John Gunheim, Philadelphia, Murphy litigated workers compensation matters exclusively for Kemper Insurance Company. In that role, she handled high-level Commonwealth Court and Supreme Court litigation. Murphy was also the president and owner of OneVision Enterprises, a career coaching and job placement firm in Philadelphia.

Back to Press Releases