Baron L. Miller
Baron L. Miller was born and raised in San Francisco, a second generation American, the grandchild of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe. He attended public grade schools and college, and received his Juris Doctorate degree from San Francisco Law School in 1972. Since his admission to the Bar in 1973, Mr. Miller has continuously practiced law in San Francisco.
Mr. Miller harbors ideas for a better world, and has been involved in numerous social action movements. His mother was a caregiver and a designer, and his father was an attorney, and growing up he learned from them the value of acquiring knowledge and skills, and using them to benefit others as well as oneself. Through them he also learned commitment. There is a family focus on achievement in the law, as Mr. Miller’s sister, Lynn Miller Nightingale, is a respected independent probate paralegal preferred among San Francisco probate and estate planning attorneys, and her son, Zachary Miller Nightingale, is a prominent immigration attorney in San Francisco.
Mr. Miller is married to Nancy Keyes, a Nurse Practitioner at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco, and an assistant clinical professor in the UCSF School of Nursing. Together they enjoy sports, literature, and the arts, both as participants and as spectators.
Mr. Miller has one child, an adult daughter, who suffers from a disabling chronic illness.
Baron L. Miller received his Juris Doctorate degree from San Francisco Law School and he has been in private practice in San Francisco continuously since 1973.
After admission to the Bar in 1973 Mr. Miller began his career working in the office of his father, Alfred M. Miller. They later formed a partnership, and worked together until Alfred Miller’s death in 1995. Baron Miller currently consults with and hires other attorneys to assist him on an as-needed basis. Mr. Miller has served as the lead attorney in scores of trials and appeals, he has served as a mentor to law students and new attorneys, and his current focus is on planning and administering estates, with an emphasis on protecting the rights of disabled persons and their families.
Community Work
For much of his career Mr. Miller has contributed his time and skills as a volunteer attorney at legal clinics run by the San Francisco Bar Association. For years he served as a mentor to high school students at the Mission High School Law Academy. As a result, he has received numerous commendations and awards from the State Bar and the S.F. Bar Association for his pro bono work, and from the San Francisco Board of Education for his work with underprivileged high school students.
Associations
Mr. Miller’s professional associations have included the following:
Admitted to legal practice by the State Bar of California, the United States Northern District Court, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in1973
Admitted to practice by the United States Supreme Court in 1978
Member of the San Francisco and San Mateo County Bar Associations
Member of the Attorney Panel on Indigent Appeals of the California Court of Appeals
Member of the Attorney Panel on Parole Revocation Hearings of the California Department of Corrections
Member of the Attorney Panel on Habeas Corpus Appeals of the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals
Member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association
Member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the San Mateo County Bar Association
Member of the Board of Directors of Planned Lifetime Assistance Network (PLAN)
Member of the Board of Directors of San Francisco Residential Care Association
Member of the Board of Directors of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill – S.F.
Katherine Feinstein, Judge of the San Francisco Superior Court, Mr. Miller, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, and Patrick Mahoney, Judge of the San Francisco Superior Court.
Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and Mr. Miller.
Attorney CJ Kingsley, Mr. Miller, Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, and Attorney Steve Miyake.
Mr. Miller and Carol Corrigan, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court.
Teaching
Mr. Miller’s teaching history has included the following:
Presenter to Bay Area community groups on estate planning for families of persons with mental illness
Decades-long guest lecturer at the Business Ethics course at Notre Dame de Nemur University in Belmont, California
Classroom teacher for the Law for the Layperson course at Orpheus University in San Francisco
Classroom speaker in the San Francisco Bar Association Constitutional Law for Schools program
Speaker to community groups on the subject of individual rights in the American Jewish Congress Legal Assistance to the Elderly outreach program
Decades-long lecturer on animal and human rights for the Animal Rights Connection program he founded for Bay Area high schools and colleges.
Speaker to Bay Area high schools, colleges, graduate programs, and medical schools on the family perspective on mental illness
Speaker at 2002 Animal Law Institute conference in Dallas, TX
Publications
Law
Q & A Time, Part 3. Proxy Parent Foundation (PPF) newsletter, Fall 2022.
Q & A Time, Part 2. PPF newsletter, Spring 2022.
After the Diagnosis. PPF newsletter, Fall 2021.
“Q and A” Time. PPF newsletter, Fall 2020.
The Show Goes On. PPF newsletter, Spring 2019
Get Empowered. PPF newsletter, Fall 2018
How to Supplement SSI. Proxy Parent Foundation PPF newsletter, Spring 2018
Who to Designate as a Trustee? PPF newsletter, Summer 2017
My Two Children. PPF newsletter, Fall 2017
Funding a Special Needs Trust With a Retirement Account. PPF newsletter, Summer 2015
Will or Trust or … PPF newsletter, Fall 2014
When Should a Special Needs Trust Go Into Effect. PPF newsletter, Spring 2013
How Safe Are Your Trust Funds? PPF newsletter, Spring 2012
Personal Support Services – Image or Reality? PPF newsletter, Fall 2011
The All-Time Courage Team. PPF newsletter, Spring 2011
Timely Funding of a Special Needs Trust. PPF newsletter, Fall 2010
Importance of the Trustee. PPF newsletter, Spring 2010
What is a Special Needs Trust? PPF newsletter, Fall 2009
SSI in 2009. Proxy Parent Foundation PPF newsletter, Spring 2009
Overcoming Bias Against Non-Human Clients. Animal Law Institute, May 1-2, 2003
A Special Needs Trust is the Ticket. The Journal of NAMI California, August, 2000
The Special Needs Trust. San Mateo AMI News, March 1996, and Out of the Fog, March 1996
Me vs. THEM. The Docket, March/April 1993
The Legend of Imaginative West Coast Lawyers is a Myth. Los Angeles Daily Journal, May 27,1987
Yet Another Case of me vs. THEM. The Recorder, August 25, 1987
Human Rights
The Tenth Plague. Jewish Advocate, April 6-12, 2001
The Value of Education. Animal Rights Connection Newsletter, August, 1996
Bigotry in the City of Tolerance. Out of the Fog, July 1996
Free Emigration. The Docket, December, 1994/January, 1995
Heterosexuals in the Military? San Francisco Examiner, February 9, 1993
The First Amendment and Animals. Animal Rights Connection Newsletter, February, 1991
Lawyer Baron Miller Writes on the Rose Bird Controversy. The Recorder, October 20, 1986
Animal Rights
Michael Vick No One to Emulate. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 13, 2007
The Truth About Animal Rights. ASIANWEEK, September 3, 1998
Animal Rights and AIDS Research. The Oakland Tribune, July 9, 1996
Why Stop at Using Baboons to Cure Human Illnesses? Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1996
Should All Research Using Animals be Halted? The Oregonian, April 25, 1991
Reported Appeals
Mr. Miller was the lead attorney and brief writer on 7 reported appeals:
In re Marriage of Harris (1977) 74 C.A. 3d 98
People v. Stewart (1979) 89 C.A. 3d 992
Hines v. Enomoto 658 F.2d 667 (9th Cir., 1981)
Weathersby v. Morris 708 F.2d 1493 (9th Cir., 1983)
Royal Company Auctioneers, Inc. v. Coast Printing Equipment Company (1987) 193 C.A.3d 868
Holland v. Thacher (1988) 199 C.A.3d 924
Mata v. Ricketts 937 F.2d 467 (9th Cir., 1991); 981 F.2d 397 (9th Cir. 1992)