Senior Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. to Receive the 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Seventh Circuit

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robert L. Miller Jr. has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Seventh Circuit. Miller has been a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana since 1985; he took senior status in 2016. Miller will receive the award during the 2023 Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference.

“[Miller] has announced his plans to step away entirely from his judicial role later this year, leaving his colleagues to try to imagine how we can possibly manage without him,” writes Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, who nominated Miller for the award. “Our future success will lie in our ability to remember and honor and emulate his legacy.”

Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, Miller served as a judge from 1985 until 2003 and then served as chief judge from 2003 to 2010. In 2020, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States appointed Miller to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Earlier in his career, Miller was a judge in the St. Joseph County Superior Court and a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

An authority on Indiana’s laws of evidence, Miller is the author of The Courtroom Handbook on Indiana Evidence and Indiana Evidence.

Miller was a founding member and a past president of the Robert A. Grant American Inn of Court.

In 2006, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave Miller the Sagamore of the Wabash, the state’s highest civilian award and recognition of those who have contributed greatly to “Hoosier” heritage. In 2003, Miller received the Woods Award from the Indiana High School Mock Trial Program. Miller has spent thousands of hours as a coach and mentor with the mock trial program, investing in the future practice of law by some participants and the public’s understanding of the nation’s system of justice.’

Miller earned an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in 1972. He earned a summa cum laude law degree from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1975.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.