Meet Maria G. Miller

After nine years of working as the Vice President of Operations for a corporation, and overseeing twelve manufacturers, Maria G. Miller saw an opportunity. Large scale litigations were growing in duration, complexity and cost making it an even greater challenge to win. It was clear that litigation faced the same problem as businesses; they needed a more efficient, effective process to produce better results. So why not use the same solution? Maria set out to answer that question. She developed, refined and perfected a unique process using a business operations approach to litigation. She proved its effectiveness repeatedly over 20 years working as the right hand to attorneys on thousands of litigation trials and multi-billion dollar cases.

Maria is also passionate about helping others. She's a lifetime member of Genesis Shelter and also serves on the Alliance board of directors. Genesis is committed to end the epidemic of domestic violence against women and children by stopping individual victimization and reducing the devastating impact of family violence through safety, shelter and expert services to battered women and their children.

Litigation Operations, Inc. is a WBENC certified woman owned business.

What clients are saying…

Maria Miller was my “Chief of Operations” and right hand for over six years in a large-scale pharmaceutical products litigation (over 10,000 cases) in which our firm served as national counsel.  She was a fantastic partner in all aspects of the litigation, from helping with management of the defendants “virtual law firm” (over 20 firms and 100+ lawyers), to budgeting, managing and reviewing fees and expenses, to helping with trial strategy (monitoring trials, shaping openings and closings, simplifying themes and graphics, working with witnesses, etc.), managing trial site operations (selection and management of vendors, organization and support of trial teams, etc.).  She has great judgment about human behavior and thus was also able to help with our telling of the company story, and in dealing with witnesses and helping with team dynamics and the client.

Maria was very effective in leveraging my time and saving the client money by dealing with a multitude of operational and other issues.  She achieved operational efficiencies throughout the litigation, which saved our client millions of dollars.  We worked on numerous trials, where in addition to working with me, Maria continued her national responsibilities and had principal responsibility for managing other trial sites as well.  Under Maria’s direction we had outstanding trial sites, which were used as a template for all the trials in the litigation.  

In short, I cannot imagine having gone through this litigation without her help.  She is extremely capable and hard working, loyal, professional and diligent.  She is an absolute pleasure to work with.”

- Steve Urbanczyk, Williams & Connolly

 

"I have never met anyone that was more talented or that worked harder than Maria. I hired her to handle the operations and be my right hand at trial for the largest, most complicated case either of us had seen. We worked together for two years and she was far better than I had even hoped."

- Larry Macon, Akin Gump, San Antonio

 

"Maria has been a tremendous asset in keeping a complex high-stakes litigation organized and running smoothly. She is highly organized, forward thinking, unflappable and 100% reliable. Maria always seemed to have the answer to any question or knew where to get it within minutes. She had excellent working relationships with counsel, witnesses, experts and the client and was highly respected and valued by all. She was adept at anticipating issues and resolving them before they became problems. I recommend her without reservation."

- Mark Lynch, former Sr. Counsel, Wyeth

 

"Maria Miller is the quintessential trial specialist. She took our trial to a new level. We benefited from her talents in several different areas:

1. Her vast amount of trial experience enabled her to help the team with mock exercises, witness preparation, securing experts, trial presentation and more. She kept a step ahead of us at all times and kept us on track.

2. She was the right hand to me and my partner and made sure we met all of our internal and external deadlines.

3. She kept me from having to deal with issues that typically distract a trial attorney. Our work product was extremely organized and accessible; projects were run through Maria; and Maria took care of all staffing, budgeting, and supervisory matters.

4. I want her to work on all my trials with me."

- David Gross, Faegre & Benson

 

"Maria, like the point guard on a championship basketball team, makes all the lawyers on the trial team better. She sees the whole court. She brings flawless organization to the behind-the-scenes organization; anticipates the needs of every member of the team; sustains the team's morale; and, if that were not enough, understands the case and offers thoughtful, useful comments about what is happening in court from the perspective of a lay juror – although she has worked on more trials than most trial lawyers."

- Lane Heard, Williams & Connolly

 

"I completed the NITA courses on trials. I have read trial strategy books and articles, and I have tried many cases. After all that, you can have no better trial preparation than having Maria Miller with you to make it all come together. As the date for opening statements draws near, your time, as 1st chair, needs to be focused on what you will say and do at trial. However, during this critical preparation, you are bombarded with every distraction conceivable. Maria Miller makes all of the "noise" of trial preparation disappear and makes it possible for you to focus on the important matters at hand. Maria can be counted on for results. She needs virtually no supervision. She has spent more time in court than most litigators. She understands people and how to get the most out of them. Stress does not phase her. Hard work does not phase her. Frankly, I don't think that anything phases her. I have worked with Maria for years and in preparation for several trials. Maria is completely devoted to her work. She can be called upon for virtually any litigation/trial preparation responsibility, witness evaluation, client coordination, etc. She will learn the case and offer "forest" suggestions while everyone else is looking at the "trees."

- Alan Macdonald, formerly with Akin Gump, DC

 

"When I think of someone who is totally reliable with excellent skills I think of Maria. No matter how complex or multi-dimensional a trial is, I have complete confidence that Maria has the skills and energy necessary to handle any situation in an exceptional manner."

- Steven Tasher, former Senior Vice President Wyeth

 

"We hired Maria to assist in managing a large mass tort litigation. She has been a tremendous help to us. She brings a "business" approach to the mechanics of the litigation and keeps things running smoothly and efficiently. That enabled the lawyers working on the case to focus on the litigation rather than management. In addition, she also keeps things running like clockwork at trials and has a real talent and great behavioral insight. I would recommend her highly."

- Jack Vardaman, Williams & Connolly

 

"For over 3 years, Maria has performed a phenomenal job as our trial specialist on a complex intellectual property case. Her terrific operational skills, dedication, experience, people skills, common sense and bubbly personality have brought our trial preparation to a new level. It is this special combination of skills, judgment and reliability that sets her apart. She never stops thinking about our case and how to make our jobs easier.

I would hire Maria in a second for every complex litigation matter I could!"

- Calvin Litsey, Faegre & Benson

 

"Maria Miller worked with me in preparing for and trying several trials over a couple of years. The best way to describe how effective she is at her job is to describe what happens when you work with Maria:

Imagine that you are in the middle of a long complex trial and after a particularly difficult day of trial you are preparing that night for the next day. You say to yourself, "I need that, I can't even remember the name of the document, but I know that I need it to prepare for cross examination." Amazingly, that certain special document that you need for preparation for the next day of trial mysteriously appears on your desk. Before you even fully realize that your head is aching, you see the bottle of aspirin that seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Your stomach starts to growl, then you see a snack of pretzels and a can of Coke sitting on your desk, and you wonder for a second, and then you smile because you know that, as usual, Maria is several steps ahead of you. And Maria does all of this with a smile and great positive attitude."

- David Callet, formerly with Akin Gump

 

"Maria has an uncanny ability to get to know the litigators that she is working with, understand the case, the client and the judge, and manage to please all of the personalities at one time! She knows what you are looking for before you do and manages to get it to you before you even know that you need it. In our cases, the judges have relied on her organization of rulings, objections, etc. and came to depend on Maria to help manage the trial. She has exceptional talent and a wonderful personality. Maria is very definitely an asset to any trial team and a pleasure to work with."

- Colleen Coyle, Akin Gump

 

"Maria is well organized, poised and professional. She has good judgment and experience and takes assignments from start to finish with little direction. She has the discretion to be trusted with significant client information. She is very proficient with technology. As to interpersonal matters, she is high energy, enthusiastic, and pleasant to work with. She is a team player who works well with others, and who works long hours with no complaints."

- Jack Fribley, Faegre & Benson