Mark A. Miller focuses his practice on highly complex litigation and has defended corporate clients in serial mass tort and class action litigation, including both state and federal multidistrict litigation. He has significant pretrial and trial experience that typically includes developing and managing the defense of mass toxic tort and products liability cases, analyzing ongoing litigation, coordinating the work of local counsel, selecting and preparing expert witnesses, deposing fact and expert witnesses, and drafting and arguing motions. He also litigates parallel tort actions seeking personal injury, property damage, and/or medical monitoring damages. He has successfully defended such cases whether filed individually, as part of a mass tort, or as a class action.
In the environmental context, Mr. Miller has successfully defended clients in mass toxic tort cases in state and federal courts in which the plaintiffs alleged personal injuries and property damages from exposures to chemicals including PCBs, dioxins, nuclear by-products, lead, arsenic, and TCE. He has experience litigating natural resource damages claims brought by trustees relating to historical operations at our clients’ facilities, often dating back more than 100 years. He is also experienced in advising our clients, in conjunction with regulatory counsel, to find pre-litigation solutions to complex NRD issues, and working with teams of experts to assess potential impacts to natural resources and the services provided by those resources.
Mr. Miller successfully represented a Fortune 500 public utility in a CERCLA cost recovery mediation against the United States in a “war plants” case. He has represented an aluminum manufacturer in a remediation cost-recovery action, defended a power plant in a citizen suit alleging violations of the PSD and NNSR provisions of the Clean Air Act, represented a pesticide manufacturer in litigation related to a cancellation proceeding under FIFRA, and represented a Fortune 500 chemical manufacturer in a NEPA case concerning genetically-modified alfalfa. Mr. Miller has also advised large chemical companies, manufacturers, public utilities, and other corporations on litigation risk assessment and compliance with statutory and regulatory schemes including CERCLA, the PSD and NNSR provisions of the Clean Air Act, FIFRA, and NEPA.
Mr. Miller’s products liability experience includes successfully defending a Fortune 500 automobile parts manufacturer in a federal consumer class action alleging defective product design, false advertising, and consumer fraud by defeating class certification through a preemptive motion to strike the class allegations and obtaining summary judgment on all counts. In addition, he has defended large corporations in the context of serial and multidistrict litigation against personal injury allegations stemming from the use of prescription pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Miller has been heavily involved in some of the Firm’s most notable recent cases. In 2014, he was part of a trial team that successfully tried a case on remand from one of the most active federal MDLs for a large pharmaceutical company, achieving the first defense verdict in Florida after the jury deliberated for less than 45 minutes following a three week trial. In that same litigation, he has also obtained summary judgment on various grounds including adequacy of the drug’s warning, secured Daubert rulings excluding plaintiffs’ expert testimony, and won a motion to preclude punitive damages under preemption principles.
Mr. Miller’s expertise extends to white collar matters. He has represented corporate clients undertaking internal audits and investigations to determine compliance with federal securities and health care laws, and he has represented clients confronted with ongoing government investigations and subpoenas from federal entities such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. He also has experience with insurance coverage matters, having litigated claims on behalf of policy holders in several property damage and business interruption cases arising from Hurricane Katrina.
Following law school, Mr. Miller clerked from 1999 to 2001 for the Honorable Thomas J. Moyer, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Mr. Miller is an active member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.
Publications
Inconsistent Gatekeeping Undercuts the Continuing Promise of Daubert
Authored by Joe Hollingsworth and Mark Miller for Washington Legal Foundation's Critical Legal Issues Working Paper Series and highlighted in the WLF 2019 Annual Report.
Passing the Buck: Recent Developments in CERCLA Contribution Actions Seeking Natural Resource Damages
By Frank Leone and Mark Miller for Bloomberg BNA publications, Toxics Law Reporter and Daily Environment Report
“Hydraulic Fracturing: New Science and New Developments In Environmental & Toxics Litigation”
By Hollingsworth LLP attorneys Frank Leone and Mark Miller for Bloomberg BNA.
"Acts of God, War, and Third Parties: The Previously Overlooked CERCLA Defenses"
A federal appeals court for the first time relies on the statutory act of war defense to dismiss a CERCLA claim arising out of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Frank Leone and Mark Miller for Environmental Law Institute.
“What’s Past Is Prologue: Statutes of Repose in Post-Waldburger Environmental Contamination Cases”
Frank Leone and Mark Miller for BNA’s Environment Reporter
A Defense Perspective on Excluding Corporate Conduct Experts in Product Liability Litigation
by Frank Leone and Mark Miller (BNA's Toxics Law Reporter, May 19, 2011)
