Judge Yvette Miller

Judge M. Yvette Miller is the first African-American woman and the 65th Judge to serve on the Court of Appeals of Georgia. She was originally appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Roy Barnes on July 12, 1999. She has been re-elected statewide by the people of Georgia without opposition for two six-year terms, most recently in November 2006. She was sworn in for her current term by Governor Sonny Perdue on January 16, 2007. She is the judge charged with oversight of the Clerk’s office.

Judge Miller is a native Georgian. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad N. Miller of Macon, Georgia, and she has one sibling, Conrad N. Miller, Jr., M.D., also of Macon. She received her B.A. degree, cum laude, from Mercer University in 1977 and her J.D. degree from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law in 1980. Judge Miller also earned an LL.M. degree in litigation from Emory University School of Law in 1988 and an LL.M. degree in Judicial Process from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2004.

Judge Miller has achieved many “firsts” in the course of her education and her distinguished legal career. She attended St. Peter Claver Catholic School until 7th grade, when she and her mother led the integration of the Bibb County public school system in Macon, Georgia. Judge Miller was the first African-American student to attend 7th grade at Walter P. Jones School, and her mother was the first African-American teacher to teach 6th grade in that school. While attending law school, Judge Miller was selected as the first African-American woman to hold the title of “Miss Macon.”

After beginning her career as an attorney with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and serving as a law clerk for Fulton County State Court Judge William Alexander, Judge Miller joined the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, where she was one of its first female prosecutors. As a prosecutor, Judge Miller handled primarily serious felony rape and murder cases. She went on to represent the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) as senior in-house litigation counsel and was responsible for handling one-third of the agency’s civil litigation in the courts.

Judge Miller subsequently moved to South Georgia, where she served as part owner, general manager and general counsel of the first minority-owned new Ford Lincoln-Mercury automobile dealership in Jesup, Georgia. This business was also one of the first such minority-owned dealerships in the state. Even as she managed her responsibilities at the dealership, Judge Miller developed a private legal practice and became the first female attorney to practice in Jesup, Georgia and throughout the Brunswick Judicial Circuit.

Judge Miller began acquiring judicial experience through her service as a part-time judge in the Magistrate Court of Fulton County from 1985-1989. In 1989, Judge Miller began her tenure as an Administrative Law Judge with the State Board of Workers’ Compensation. In 1992, when Governor Zell Miller appointed her to serve as Director and Judge of the Appellate Division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation, Judge Miller became the first woman, first African-American, and youngest person ever to hold that position. Four years later, Governor Miller appointed her to the State Court of Fulton County, and she was re-elected as a State Court judge without opposition in 1998.

Judge Miller has been an active member and leader in numerous professional and civic organizations. Judge Miller serves on the National Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal and the Advisory Board of the Girl Scout Council of Northwest Georgia. Judge Miller is a founding member of the Judicial Section of the Gate City Bar, a former president-elect and vice-president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and previously served as Chair of the State Bar Women and Minorities in the Profession Commission, on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, and on the Board of Directors for the Judicial Section of the Atlanta Bar Association. Judge Miller also has served as: Chair of the Supreme Court Committee on Public Trust and Confidence; Chair of the Georgia Student Finance Commission (which administers the Hope Scholarship Program); a Trustee of Leadership Georgia; a member of the Board of Directors of Mercer Law School; a member of the Board of Directors for the Young Women’s Christian Association of Greater Atlanta; a member of the Board of Directors for Kids Chance, Inc.; a Board member of the Supreme Court Commission on Substance Abuse and the Courts; and a Board member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Currently, Judge Miller is a fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia and a member of the Lamar Inn of Court, the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, the Atlanta Bar Association, the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, the Gate City Bar Association, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, the Azalea City Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Judge Miller has received many awards and special recognitions for her professional achievements and public service. She was recognized for her accomplishments in Who’s Who in Black Atlanta from 2001 to 2006, and she was designated by the Georgia Informer as one of “Georgia’s Top 50 Influential Black Women” from 1991 to 2008. In 1997, she was awarded the Meritorious Service Award by the Mercer University Alumni Association. In 2006, Judge Miller was selected as one of 20 American judges to attend the Sir Richard May Seminar on International Law and International Courts in The Hague, Netherlands. She frequently accepts invitations to lecture on various legal topics, including ethics, professionalism, and various aspects of appellate practice in Georgia, and has published numerous articles.

Judge Miller resides in Vinings, Cobb County, and is a member of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta. She is also a life-long member of Steward Chapel AME Church in Macon.