Special Discovery Master Gregory Miller – a Leader like No Other

Amanda Gonzalez

Philadelphia's Special Discovery Master in the Diet Drugs Products Liability Litigation, has had a very long and respected career in the legal system. After graduating from Mount Union College in 1972 Gregory Miller served this country in the United States Navy and was about to go to Vietnam when he was offered the chance to go to Law school. The choice he made would be one that changed Miller’s life forever. A year later Miller moved from his home state of Ohio after graduating with a Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University in May of 1975 to begin his legal carerr.

Miller continued to serve the Navy as both the Attorney and Senior Trial Counsel of the Naval Legal Services office in Philadelphia after being admitted to the Eastern District and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the Naval Shipyard located in Philadelphia was shut down in 1996. Currently the Naval Services Office that handles the Northeast Region is located in Washington, D.C. I had no luck confirming Miller’s work with the Naval Legal Services office because his time with them dated back to 1976.

Miller’s work and reputation at the Naval Services Office helped him to attain the position as the assistant United States Attorney in December of 1978. After some very successful trial work Miller moved on as the Chief of the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s office until January of 1985. In order to get a specific break down of the dates he held each position the personnel department would have to put a request into the records department. After his work with the state Miller went to work at Morgan, Lewis & Backius (ML&B) where he was recruited because of his reputation as a good litigation lawyer and his work on various white collar and civil cases. Although this was not on his resume I was made aware of his experience at this firm when talking to one of his employees. Toby Bosniak first met Miller at ML&B and was one of the first paralegals to work with him on the Pennsylvania Blue Shield cases. Toby clearly remembers her first work with him, “Greg is excellent at delegating responsibility and recognizing people’s abilities. He challenges everyone he works with to be the best they can be.” Ms. Bosniak later joined Greg after he and his partners started Miller, Aflano & Raspanti and currently works with him on the Diet Drug litigation. Ms. Bosniak’s enthusiasm to talk about her work with Greg leads one to believe that his success comes from more than just hard work. Miller’s ability to work with people and gain the respect of many has helped launch his career into what it has become.

Miller’s Legal Experience before starting his own practice was at Hoyle, Morris & Kerr a firm that is no longer in existence. The firm has also been removed from the 2004 Legal Directory as well as Martindale Hubbell’s website. The resume does not note that this firm has since closed down. According to Florence White, Member Services, Miller became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in March of 1985 and has renewed yearly since then. While Miller is a very honorable Lawyer there was some difficulty in finding exactly what honors he received. He has listed that he is a member of the Criminal Law Committee of the Federal Bar Association (FBA) but after contacting the FBA I found that there is not such committee. Lisa A. Sidletsky Director of Membership for the FBA also said that she has no record of Gregory Miller as a member of the FBA.

His work at Hoyle Morris & Kerr brought Miller into contact with the 2 attorneys that would join him to create Miller, Alfano & Raspanti. Marc Raspanti first worked with Miller in February of 1987 at HM&K and said, “I immediately started working with Greg. I looked for opportunities to work with him and got to know him personally.” Many of Miller’s current employees find him to be a great mentor and leader. “Miller has become such a great leader over the years because he is so focused, decisive and driven but always maintains balance and a good sense of humor. He never took himself too seriously,” Raspanti said as he spoke about Miller’s leadership style.
Miller’s record of achievement as well as the respect he receives from all who have worked with him explains why he was Honorable Louis Bechtel’s choice for Special Discovery Master in the Diet Drug Litigation case. A Discovery Master must be respected, able to mediate between many parties while being firm and bring together a staff with good administration skills. All of which Miller has shown he can do. At a recent appearance before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Miller’s partner commented about the argument saying, “I defy anyone who watched Greg Miller argue before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania this week to tell me that wasn’t one of the finest, most flawless appellate arguments you had ever seen!”

Miller continues to move audiences through a number of presentations and speaking engagements however because they are from the 1990’s I did have a difficult time getting confirmation that he did present at various meetings. I did speak to Torry at LexisNexis/Mealey’s and they did some research for me and later contacted me regarding Miller’s presentation titled Calling in the Heavy Artillery: Consultants and Their Use in Qui Tam Litigation. According to what was published in June of 2001 Greg Miller did not speak at the conference. So this could be a discrepancy on his resume or the 2000 conference that Miller may have presented at was not published.

Miller’s achievement can also be confirmed by doing a simple Lawyer rating search on the Martindale-Hubbell website where his legal ability rating is “very high to Preeminent” and his general recommendation rating is “very high.” After speaking to some of Miller’s co-workers and reviewing his various cases and presentation it seems he is quit an amazing lawyer. The respect that his co-workers have for him and the enthusiasm they have when working with him is evidence enough that Miller has earned all of the top ratings he receives.