Marla J. Miller
Justice Miller was appointed to the Court of Appeal by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in November 2014, and confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments on December 10, 2014. She serves as an Associate Justice in Division Two.
Justice Miller’s judicial service began in 2005 when she was appointed to the San Francisco Superior Court. During her more than nine years on the Superior Court, Justice Miller presided over criminal and civil jury and bench trials, preliminary hearings, and the law and motion department. She also served for three months as a pro tem Justice in Division Five of the First District Court of Appeal.
Justice Miller is currently a member of the Judicial Council Civil Jury Instructions Advisory Committee and the California Supreme Court Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions. As of April, 2022, Justice Miller is chair of the California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics. She has previously served on the Judicial Council Access and Fairness Advisory Committee, and the executive committee of the San Francisco Superior Court.
Justice Miller attended Fullerton, California public schools from kindergarten through high school. She went to college at Harvard University, where she graduated in 1976, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She went on to Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude in 1980, and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Justice Miller then spent one year as a law clerk to Judge Charles M. Merrill on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.
After her judicial clerkship ended, Justice Miller stayed in San Francisco, where she has lived since 1980. Before being appointed to the bench, she practiced law for 24 years in private practice and as a federal and local criminal prosecutor. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Superior Court, Justice Miller was a partner at Morrison & Foerster, an international law firm, specializing in complex civil litigation. Before that, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California (1987-1992), as well as Chief Assistant District Attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Justice Miller was also a director at the law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Robertson & Falk, where she served as chair of the litigation department.
Justice Miller has long been involved in professional and community organizations, including her children’s schools. She is a past president of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court, past president of the San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance, and a past member of the board of directors of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the State Bar of California Committee on Women in the Law, and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.
Justice Miller received the Barristers Club of San Francisco Barristers Choice Award in 2009 in recognition of her work mentoring young lawyers. Justice Miller has taught courses to other judges on many topics, including judicial ethics, evidence and jury trial management.
Justice Miller is married, and she and her husband have adult children.