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Stuart Miller has extensive experience in complex appeals and writs on all subjects and in high-profile trial level litigation involving civil rights, and land use. He represents clients directly and also serves as special counsel for law firms on appeals, trials, motions, and litigation strategy.
Bio
Stuart has handled hundreds of writs and appeals in state and federal courts in California,New York, and elsewhere, and is responsible for landmark decisions in the fields of land use, environmental law, public health, immigration, and social services. In all, decisions in 60 of his cases have been published, and he has written 62 articles on civil rights, property rights, and administrative law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit praised his appellate skills in a published decision, and he was named one of Orange County’s “Most Talked-About Lawyers” by Orange Coast Magazine.
Stuart has trained hundreds of lawyers as a professor at four ABA-accredited law schools in California and New York, teaching courses in Basic and Advanced Appellate Advocacy, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Litigation Tactics, and Real Property. He is now an adjunct professor in the Appellate Advocacy Clinic of the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
He is an accomplished stained glass artist and photographer and enjoys creative writing and exotic travel.
Professional Achievements
Stuart was lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Monks v. City of Rancho Palos Verdes (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 263. This is the only successful permanent regulatory taking case in the history of California, and resulted in a damages award of $4.25 million plus the removal of a development ban on land worth $20 million.
Stuart won millions of dollars for civil rights violations by the cities of Anaheim and La Habra.
Decisions in 60 of his cases have been published.
Orange Coast Magazine named him one of Orange County’s twelve “Most Talked-About Lawyers” in 2008 because of his successes in civil rights litigation.
From 1983 to 1992, Stuart was Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Department of Law, where he represented government agencies and officials in a wide variety of important cases. His litigation victories include the leading case in the United States on the liability of successor landowners for hazardous waste cleanups, the constitutional defense of many environmental and public health statutes, and the closure of the world’s largest radium facility (which the Environmental Protection Agency called the most dangerous toxic cleanup in history).
Stuart has trained hundreds of lawyers as a law school professor in California and New York, teaching courses in Basic and Advanced Appellate Advocacy, Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Litigation Tactics, and Real Property.
Student appellate teams under his supervision won the Bernard E. Witkin Award for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy and the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers Award for Brief Writing.
Stuart received a rare published commendation from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the “excellence” of his work in directing a student appellate team.
Stuart has written law review articles on regulatory taking and licensing issues. His study of regulatory takings has been widely cited by other commentators and in government publications, and was quoted in a published opinion by the Supreme Court of Florida. He has also written 60 articles on civil rights and government litigation for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal.