Chris Murphy, ’96, is an adjunct assistant professor for the Zell Entrepreneurship Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.
The role brings Murphy back to his alma mater, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy. He currently serves as vice president of legal affairs and chief privacy officer at video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), where he leads the company’s global privacy and player protection programs, manages enterprise AI governance, and serves on the leadership team for EA’s Mobile gaming vertical.
Prior to joining EA, Murphy was chief privacy officer and lead counsel for global cybersecurity and privacy at General Motors. There, he counseled the board of directors and executive leaders on data practices ranging from connected and autonomous vehicle technologies to dealership relationships, and represented GM before state, federal, and international regulators.
Murphy also spent more than a decade in private practice in the commercial litigation department at Cozen O’Connor, where he gained first-chair trial and dispute resolution experience representing corporate clients in complex commercial litigation, then-emerging data breach readiness, and IT contracting. Earlier in his career, during the dot-com era, he served as in-house counsel and director of operations for Web Elite, an Ann Arbor-founded technology startup with offices in New York and San Francisco. This blend of trial, corporate, and hands-on startup experience allows him to bring a highly practical, business-first perspective to his corporate practice and to the mentoring of law students learning to advise founders in the ZEC.
Murphy earned his JD from Boston College Law School in 1999.