Chief Judge M. Yvette Miller Will Speak at BBA Breakfast on May 20

ATLANTA (May 14, 2010) – Chief Judge M. Yvette Miller, the first African-American woman to serve as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia, will be the guest speaker at the next weekly breakfast meeting of the Buckhead Business Association (BBA, www.buckheadbusiness.org) on Thursday, May 20 at the City Club of Buckhead.

Chief Judge Miller was originally appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Roy Barnes in 1999, when she became the first African-American woman and 65th Judge on the Court. She has been re-elected statewide by the people of Georgia without opposition for two six-year terms, most recently in November 2006. In October 2008, she was unanimously elected by her fellow judges to serve as Chief Judge for a two-year term, which began January 1, 2009.

“We look forward to welcoming Chief Judge Miller to our next BBA breakfast meeting,” notes Heather Wright, president of the Buckhead organization, attorney and owner of The Wright Firm, LLC. “She will inspire our male and female members with her vision, grit and grace.”

Chief Judge Miller has achieved many “firsts” in the course of her education and her distinguished legal career. After starting as an attorney with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Chief Judge Miller became one of the first female prosecutors in Fulton County. She went on to represent the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) as senior in-house litigation counsel, and then moved to South Georgia, where she served as part owner, general manager and general counsel of the first minority-owned new Ford Lincoln-Mercury automobile dealership in Jesup, Georgia. Even as she managed her many responsibilities at the dealership, Chief Judge Miller also developed a private legal practice and became the first African-American female attorney to practice in Jesup, Georgia and in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit.

Chief Judge Miller is a member of numerous professional and civic organizations, including the Atlanta Bar Association, the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers (www.gawl.org), and the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys. She is a founding member of the Judicial Section of the Gate City Bar. Chief Judge Miller also serves on the Executive Committee of the National Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, the Board of Directors of the Judicial Section of the Atlanta Bar Association, the Advisory Board of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, the Advisory Board of the Girl Scout Council of Northwest Georgia, and the Board of Directors of the Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation.