Brian Miller is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and he has been selected for inclusion in the Texas Edition of Super Lawyers magazine for each year since 2014.

Mr. Miller’s practice is focused on prosecuting and defending appeals, advising and representing businesses on employment-law matters, and defending local government entities and officials in civil litigation. His experience also includes commercial disputes, industrial and oilfield accidents, administrative law, and maritime law. He has participated in over 125 appeals, many of which have resulted in important clarifications of Texas and federal law. Mr. Miller has also served as trial counsel in several cases.

In 2021, Mr. Miller concluded a one-year term as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers. From 2018 to 2022, he served on the Education Committee for the Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit, the nation’s premier appellate bench-bar seminar. From 2013 to 2014, Mr. Miller was chair of the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the ABA’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.

Mr. Miller was a member of the executive board of the University of Texas Law School Alumni Association from 2016 to 2020, and he served on the State Bar of Texas board of directors from 2014 to 2017.

Mr. Miller has dedicated much of his time to improving Texas legal procedure. From 2016 to 2023, he served on the State Bar’s Pattern Jury Charges Oversight Committee, which coordinates, considers, and approves standard jury instructions that six subject-matter committees propose for use in trials in Texas courts. From 2011 to 2014, he was a member of the State Bar’s Court Rules Committee, which is charged with identifying and proposing improvements to procedural rules affecting litigation.

Mr. Miller served, from 2009 to 2011, as a delegate in the ABA House of Delegates, the policy-setting body of the ABA. From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Miller further served the House as a member of its Committee on Issues of Concern to the Profession.

Mr. Miller created and led the implementation of the Kids Law Library at Los Encinos Elementary School. The Kids Law Library was selected over numerous state and local submissions to receive the American Bar Endowment Outstanding Public Service Project Award at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting.

In recognition of his professional and public service efforts, Mr. Miller has been inducted as a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and as a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Mr. Miller joined Royston Rayzor in July 2008.

Commercial and insurance

• Successfully defended appeal of take-nothing judgment in construction-indemnity case involving a Houston hospital, even though opponent general contractor had benefit of broadly worded indemnity clause in its subcontract with client.
• Obtained mandamus relief from Court of Appeals to compel trial court to sever and stay proceedings on bad-faith claims against insurer until after judgment on underlying coverage dispute.
• Obtained reversal of trial court’s refusal to enforce forum-selection clause in international business dispute.
• Obtained reversal of judgment against client in investors’ dispute, with Fifth Circuit agreeing that dispute fell outside admiralty jurisdiction and ordering dismissal of suit.
• Obtained, and successfully defended on appeal, summary judgment awarding indemnity to retailer in wrongful-death suit, despite manufacturer’s efforts to structure settlement to prejudice retailer’s indemnity right.
• Obtained reversal of take-nothing judgment on jury verdict in suit based on subcontractor's failure to acquire insurance-policy endorsement naming general contractor as an additional insured.
• Obtained reversal of trial court’s temporary injunction against client in international business dispute.
• Obtained reversal of trial court’s order denying client’s motion to compel arbitration in construction dispute.
• Obtained affirmance of summary judgment for client in building contractor’s suit alleging breach of contracts for repair of hurricane damage.

Employment

• Obtained affirmance of take-nothing summary judgment in employment dispute involving temporary worker’s Family and Medical Leave Act claims, with Fifth Circuit agreeing with our interpretation of statute and regulations and rejecting contentions of several amici curiae friendly to plaintiff.
• Successfully defended removal of employment-discrimination and breach-of-contract case to federal court by showing that client, although a limited liability company formed and managed in Texas, took the out-of-state citizenship of its corporate owner for purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction.
• Obtained, and sustained on appeal, summary judgment for local county in suit by former employees who claimed retaliatory discharge in violation of their free-speech rights.
• Obtained dismissal, before any depositions, of politically charged suit against local county and its sheriff by showing that state court’s affirmance of civil-service ruling had preclusive effect on plaintiffs’ federal suit for retaliatory discharge in alleged violation of First Amendment rights.

Personal injury and civil rights

• Successfully overcame, in Court of Appeals and Texas Supreme Court, trade organization’s arguments that First Amendment and state law prohibited disclosure of source of defamatory information published in safety alert on organization’s website.
• Obtained affirmance of judgment dismissing wrongful-death suit, with Court of Appeals agreeing that oilfield-industry users of county road did not owe duty to repair road or warn other users of possible dust clouds generated by oilfield traffic.
• Successfully defended appeal of take-nothing judgment in wrongful-death case, where opponent argued that jury received incorrect instructions concerning employer’s liability for the on-premises, but off-duty, conduct of employee.
• Successfully defended take-nothing judgment in favor of client in personal-injury suit despite co-defendant’s contentions that client’s trial counsel engaged in improper jury argument.
• Obtained appellate ruling dismissing personal-injury suit against county, where suspect’s vehicle collided with plaintiff’s vehicle as suspect attempted to flee arrest.

Other

• Obtained affirmance of summary judgment, establishing board member’s statutory-immunity defense, in suit against homeowners association and its management.
• Acting as special appellate counsel for local prosecutor’s office, obtained affirmance by state Court of Appeals of assault conviction and vindication of trial counsel over claim of prosecutorial wrongdoing.