Meville D. Miller, Jr.

Melville “De” Miller, Jr., co-founder and former president of Legal Services of New Jersey, was born in Summit, New Jersey in 1944 to Frances Weinpahl Miller and Melville DeSoto Miller. He grew up in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and was president and valedictorian of the first graduating class of Ridge High School in 1962. He graduated from Amherst College in 1966 and married Louise Sills Barton Miller that same year; he then went on to attain his JD from Harvard Law in 1969.

After graduating, Miller worked for a short time at a private law firm but the lure of public interest was too strong and he forever left private practice to join the State Office of Legal Services, then Middlesex County Legal Services, before helping to incorporate Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) in 1973. He then served as president and general counsel of LSNJ for nearly five decades, from 1974 to 2020, when, in his words, he “stepped aside” to make room for family life but vowed to stay involved in legal advocacy and the Poverty Research Institute, especially in issues related to child welfare. In the words of Alan W. Houseman, former executive director of the national nonprofit Center for Law and Social Policy,

De has been, not only a great leader in New Jersey, but one of the great leaders in legal aid in the United States. De not only created, in my view, the most comprehensive, integrated, and effective legal services system in the nation in New Jersey, but he also led efforts to improve performance and quality in the legal aid systems in the United States. He was the principle draftsperson and the theorist behind the LSC performance measures, which are used not only by LSC, but by many state funders to set criteria for civil legal aid programs and to evaluate them. He also was the theoretical genius behind the justice gap study, which LSC did, and has done several times, to show the huge gap between the legal needs of low-income people and the ability of civil legal services to meet those needs.

John Tull, retired consultant and former director of the Legal Services Corporation Office of Program Operations, described Miller as “a giant of a man and a real force of nature,” emphasizing the important influence he had in the development of the legal services movement and, in particular, the cherished value of “ high quality advocacy that aims at making a difference in changing policies and practices that negatively affect poor families, poor communities, poor individuals.”

And from Douglas S. Eakeley, LSNJ board member and former chair of the Legal Services Corporation, “He was truly passionate, not only about justice, but about having justice serve people in need. He was, with that passion, wonderfully empathetic as well. He was tireless. He was a crusader at heart. … He had a vision that he was able to translate into a design, and then implement or build that design into a program, not just a program, but a program that is a national model for state support.”

Dawn K. Miller, De’s successor as president of LSNJ, describes De’s contributions to Legal Services as “immense.” He not only served as the founder and leader of Legal Services in New Jersey, but also—as either principal drafter, editor, or thought provoker—participated in nearly every Legal Services case that came before the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Central to De’s lasting legacy are the hundreds of lawyers he helped mentor, train, and inspire to build careers in public interest work, as well as the millions of clients who have received legal assistance from Legal Services in New Jersey over the decades; the countless others who have benefitted from pro se materials, videos, and other publications; and the low-income communities who have benefitted from his dogged commitment to raising awareness of the prevalence and consequences of poverty in our state.

Miller published a number of reports and articles on poverty, many through the LSNJ Poverty Research Institute (PRI), which he created in 1997. PRI reports over these four decades include the Poverty Benchmarks Series (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012); The Real Cost Of Living Series (2008 and 2013); and eight reports between 2002 and 2013 about legal needs and the legal aid gap. Other publications included:

Economic Stability Initiative—State welfare reform proposal (principal author) (1991)
Changing Legal Contexts for Affirmative Welfare Reform, Fordham Urban Law Journal (1994)
Excellence In State Support (Ford Foundation, 1995)
Examining WorkFirst (1996)
You and the Law in New Jersey: A Resource Guide (co-author) (1988; 1998)
Assessing WorkFirst: What Happens After Welfare? (1999)
Assessing WorkFirst: Challenges Facing Long-Term Welfare Recipients in New Jersey (1999)
How New Jersey’s Public Assistance Dollars Are Spent (2000)
Strengthening Families, Fund for New Jersey (2002)
Poverty in the City of Camden (2007)
Hard Times Amid Prosperity: A Current Profile of Poverty in New Jersey (2000)
A Desperate and Widening Divide: The Concurrent Increase in Poverty, Income and Inequality in New Jersey (2002)
The Critical Shortage of Affordable Housing in New Jersey: A Brief Overview (2003)
Supporting New Jersey’s Workers: The Importance and Adequacy of the State Minimum Wage (2008)
Food, Clothing, Health, or a Home? The Terrible Choices and Deprivations—and Great Courage—of New Jerseyans Who Live in Poverty (2010)
Income Inequality in New Jersey: The Growing Divide and Its Consequences (2012)

He was widely respected among the New Jersey Supreme Court Justices from former Chief Justice Robert Wilentz in the 1970s and 80s to current Chief Justice Stuart J. Rabner, who said, “He made a meaningful difference in countless lives, not only the clients he served, but also the attorneys he inspired.”

De Miller made a “huge contribution to the second civil rights movement,” says retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., through his efforts to create “more racial, gender and ethnic diversity, justice, and political success. Those victories have helped to transform America, from being two nations to becoming more closely one nation by the time of De’s death.”

De Miller died at the age of 76 in his Tewksbury, New Jersey home on March 1, 2021. In reflections offered at that time, former LSNJ Board Chair and retired Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz spoke of their regular visits to Trenton to make the case for increased Legal Services funding. “He had an encyclopedic memory, always putting together the best case. Always shaping that case by his concern and his compassion for Legal Services clients. … He was eloquent when he chose to be and funny when he chose to be.” When testifying before the budget committee in front of both the houses, she recalls, “He spoke with the passion and knowledge that was the hallmark of the man that we all admire and love.”

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

National Clients Council, Alvin J. Arnett Award (1977)
National Legal Services Project Advisory Group Award of Achievement (1978)
National Legal Services Project Advisory Group Denison Ray Award (1982)
National Legal Aid and Defender Association Reginald Heber Smith Award (1987)
New Jersey State Bar Foundation Medal of Honor Award (1992)
Drew University, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (1998)
Judith A. Trachtenberg Award for Lifetime Advocacy, Center for Non-Profit Corporations (2002)
Award of Excellence, Thurgood Marshall College Fund (2008)
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of NJ—Spirit of Humanity Awards (2012)
The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice—The NJISJ Alan V. and Amy Lowenstein Social Justice Award (2013)
Recognition of Vision and Leadership, presented as a co-convenor of the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey (2015)