EXHIBIT 5




                            Willkie Farr & Gallagher
                               787 Seventh Avenue
                             New York, NY 10019-6099




November 1, 2001



Mueller Industries, Inc.
8285 Tournament Drive
Suite 150
Memphis, TN  38125

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have acted as counsel to Mueller Industries, Inc. (the "Company"), a
corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware, with respect to
the Company's Form S-8 Registration Statement (the "Registration Statement") to
be filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission in
connection with the registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended
(the "Act"), by the Company of 3,980,000 shares of common stock, par value $.01
per share (the "Common Stock"), which are issuable upon exercise of stock
options granted or to be granted under option agreements with Harvey L. Karp and
William D. O'Hagan (the "Option Agreements").

As counsel for the Company, we have examined, among other things, originals
and/or copies (certified or otherwise identified to our satisfaction) of such
documents, certificates and records as we deemed necessary and appropriate for
the purpose of preparing this opinion.

Based on the foregoing, we hereby inform you that in our opinion the shares of
Common Stock to be newly issued upon exercise of stock options granted or to be
granted under the Option Agreements have been duly and validly authorized for
issuance and, when issued in accordance with the terms of the Option Agreements
for consideration in excess of $.01 per share, will be validly issued, fully
paid and nonassessable.

We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to the
Registration Statement. In giving such consent, we do not hereby admit that we
come within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of
the Act or the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission.




We are members of the Bar of the State of New York and do not purport to be
experts in the laws of jurisdictions other than the State of New York, the
General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware and the Federal laws of the
United States of America.

Very truly yours,



/s/ Willkie Farr & Gallagher