Trailblazing Georgia judge starts new chapter in retirement

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Miller has plenty of material from which to draw, including the decades of criminal and civil cases she oversaw. She said being a judge can be lonely and sobering at times, in part because of the impartiality required.

“When you’re out with your friends, you can’t be chitchatting about cases that are under court consideration. You have to zip it up. Can’t talk about it,” she said. “Sometimes the subject matter is very dark.”

Miller has a lifetime of firsts to fill pages with, starting with her time at elementary school in Macon, where she and her mother integrated an all-white school together. Miller became the first Black student at Walter P. Jones Elementary School when she was in the seventh grade. That same year, her mother, Patricia Miller, started as the school’s first Black teacher.

“Just coincidentally, our rooms were across the hall,” Miller said.

After graduating from Mercer University School of Law, Miller went on to become one of the first female assistant district attorneys to prosecute cases in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. In her 30s, she became the first woman, the first Black and the youngest person to serve as a director on the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation, to which she was appointed in 1992 by then-Gov. Zell Miller.

In 1999, Miller became the first Black female judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, appointed by then-Gov. Roy Barnes. She was the court’s third female judge, after Dorothy Toth Beasley and Anne Barnes, and its first Black female chief judge, a position she held for two years.

“In so many instances in my career, I feel like I’ve plowed the ground,” Miller said.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Attorney Harold Franklin, a partner at King & Spalding, was one of Miller’s friends and colleagues who spoke at her retirement ceremony in October. He said the fact that she remains “down to earth” despite her many achievements is remarkable. “She is so relatable. She is so kind. She is so genuine,” he said. “And those are unusual traits to combine with someone who has been a trailblazer in so many ways.”

A community-centered career

Miller said she had opportunities to pursue a law degree from Harvard and a seat on the Atlanta-based federal appeals court, but chose to stay where she felt she could best serve her community. She said she heeded the advice of her father, Conrad Miller Sr., throughout her career, including when he encouraged her to study law at Mercer.

“I think he felt like once I got up there (Harvard), I would never come back,” Miller said. “He said, ‘With the history of everything that’s going on here in Macon and you want to be a lawyer, you need to learn these people, this community.’ I see the reasoning. I’ve sort of stayed on my path.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Miller said she remembers developing an interest in law while listening to her parents discuss what was happening in America in the 1960s, watching speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. and learning about integration. She said she and her mother were once sent to what they believed was the “colored waiting room” of her pediatrician’s office, which angered her father, who called the doctor.

“The place we were waiting was not as nice as the place where we would normally wait,” Miller said. “I never knew the difference, until that one time.”

Miller’s first job out of law school was clerking for a Fulton County judge. She spent several years as an assistant district attorney, then briefly worked as an in-house litigator for MARTA.

After Miller completed a master’s degree at the Emory University School of Law, she moved with her then-husband to Jesup in Southeast Georgia, where they owned a Ford dealership. Miller was the dealership’s general manager and counsel. She also was one of the first Black women practicing law in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit at the time.

Miller returned to Atlanta around 1990 and was hired as an administrative law judge on the state workers’ compensation board. From 1992-96, Miller was a director on the board, deciding appeals of workers’ compensation cases. In that role, she also traveled the state speaking with business owners and operators about workers’ compensation issues.

In 1996, Miller was appointed as a judge on the Fulton County State Court. Three years later, she became an appellate judge. About nine years into her tenure on the Georgia Court of Appeals, she became its chief judge.

Miller said the administrative duties of a chief judge allowed her to make the most of the skills she learned running the Ford dealership. She prioritized the development of an electronic case filing system for the court before that kind of technology was widespread in Georgia.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

“I didn’t know it, but it was what I was longing for,” Miller said of the chief judge role. “It was great for me. It was a lot of work. I wanted to make a difference.”

Miller said she received a call from a staffer of then-President Barack Obama about her possible placement on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but decided to stay put and “bloom where I’m planted.” She said she’s enjoyed being able to mentor other lawyers and judges.

“I felt like I had done everything that I wanted to do on the court,” Miller said of her decision to retire when her elected term ended in December. “I’m very proud of my work. I wanted to give this opportunity to somebody else.”

At Miller’s retirement ceremony, Georgia Supreme Court Justice John Ellington spoke about the difference she has made in Macon, Atlanta and Georgia’s legal and judicial communities. He said she will continue to make a difference in retirement.

In addition to writing a book, Miller is considering becoming a mediator as well as teaching at Mercer Law, where she endowed a scholarship to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

“You know it’s time for a new challenge when the lawyers you mentored as young lawyers right out of law school have children in college and law school and have become partners in their own law firms,” Miller said at her retirement ceremony. “The life cycle is complete.”