Jes Murphy Featured in New England Construction Article, "The Change Makers: Celebrating Women in Construction 2026"
A New England Construction Article | Articles
March 5, 2026
Shipman partner Jes Murphy is featured in the New England Construction article entitled "The Change Makers: Celebrating Women in Construction 2026."
Excerpt:
In 2005, Jes Murphy graduated toward the top of her class from Suffolk University Law School. While she worked across all major departments during her first year of legal work, she quickly recognized a love for litigation. As the daughter of a contractor, she found herself naturally drawn to construction cases involving non-payment, quality disputes, or compliance issues.
"I especially enjoy working for contractors that remind me of my dad — guys who are on the job site daily, working hard and doing a great job with their craft," Murphy says.
Over the past 20 years, she has represented municipalities, general contractors, and specialty subcontractors alike. She thrives on helping clients resolve disputes that affect core operations and profitability, delivering practical guidance to prevent issues from escalating into costly litigation.
A 13-year member of NAWIC, Murphy has served as a chapter President twice and currently chairs the National Legislative Industry Issues Committee.
Her Advice
Ask questions until you feel comfortable with the answers and that you understand it all. There are a lot of ways to get your questions answered. Sometimes it’s asking at work, researching the information yourself, or asking someone else who knows. That last part is where NAWIC excels — mentorship, support, and education for younger women in construction. Too often, women don’t want to seem like they don’t know something and feel like asking questions will highlight their inexperience or show they are not up to the task. That is not true.
Often, it’s an incorrect assumption that the process is correct just because it’s always been done that way. Things change and truly there’s no guarantee that it was done correctly in the first place. As a construction litigation lawyer, I advise all parties to learn about the back of the house (the entire picture) because it doesn’t matter how good you are at your job if you cannot get paid for it because it falls short of contract requirements.