Hidden Gems: Meet Janice Miller of Miller Haga Law Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Janice Miller.

Hi Janice, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m a managing partner of Miller Haga Law Group LLP – a boutique corporate business transactional law firm in Southern California. We do everything from start-up to wind down and everything in between –if it needs to be reduced to writing call us.  

I am a highly recognized legal expert with over 25 years of experience as an Innovative General Counsel® and in the business strategy of Coopertition℠. At Miller Haga, LLP, I serve as a strategic legal partner and business advisor, providing the firm’s clients with pragmatic, cost–effective legal and business solutions that minimize risk and maximize profits.

Prior to entering private practice, I was NBCUniversal’s Vice President of Business Affairs for Universal Studios Hollywood® and CityWalk®. I also held the role of Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for more than 12 years, playing an important role in both the business and legal sides of the billion-dollar expansion of Universal Studios Hollywood® theme park and the CityWalk® retail, dining and entertainment complex. During my 20+ year tenure with various Universal entities, I was the principal senior executive for real estate leasing matters at CityWalk®, managing the entertainment destination’s relationships with over 60 tenants with restaurants, nightclubs, and retail venues. In addition, I oversaw a number of diverse legal matters, including licensing intellectual property in the theme park, ride safety issues, and litigation management.  I also served executive leadership as a strategic advisor on multi-million dollars business deals, including corporate sponsorships. Before joining NBCUniversal, I had a well-earned reputation as a leader in entertainment, real estate and intellectual property business affairs at Walt Disney Imagineering®, Sega GameWorks® and MCA Recreations Services®. I started my legal career in entertainment litigation, representing celebrities from the television, motion picture and music industries.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was born in Philadelphia, PA – my dad died when I was 7 and I lost my dad, granddad, and great-great grandfather in a span of 18 months.  My mom provided for the 3 of us and my grandmother came to live with us so my mom could take an outside job.  I became the surrogate mom at 9, helping with the chores around the house and my younger sister and brother.  My mom worked three jobs to keep things together for us.  Her work ethic was unsurpassed – and that is where I get it from.  She was my role model and my hero!

In high school I played softball and tennis, an instrument, was President of student counsel, editor in chief of the high school newspaper, had a part-time job and of course, had straight A’s.  One of the last classes I took in high school was in journalism and knew I wanted to be a writer. So when the choice of where to go to college was, while I had other opportunities, I went to Temple University, lived at home, saved money and graduated with a BA in Journalism and Advertising in three years.  I fell in love with the law of mass communications and got myself to law school at night working for a newspaper part of the way through law school.  I knew I wanted to be in CA and in between my 3rd and 4th year clerked for an entertainment firm in LA and knew this is where I wanted to be.  Through trials and tribulations, I got myself to LA and after two years as a baby insurance defense litigator, I went to work for two very well-established entertainment litigation firms until I determined that making love (transactional law) not war (litigation) was what I wanted to do.  I then took a job at Walt Disney Imagineering. From there I had my own practice for a hot minute and then landed at Universal where I worked for a couple of different business units for about 20 years.

About seven years ago I was given both a curse and a blessing.  After a reorganization where 3 people took my one position, with husband and kids’ encouragement, I started my own practice and have been in the “real world” ever since.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Miller Haga Law Group is a premier law firm based in the Los Angeles area, providing Innovative General Counsel Services® to both privately held and Fortune 100 companies. Miller Haga’s clients benefit from the firm’s extensive experience in the areas of corporate, business and real estate transactions, employment law, location-based entertainment, and regulatory compliance.

With over 25 years of combined experience as Fortune 100 in-house counsel, Miller Haga’s attorneys have “been the client,” managing outside counsel budgets in excess of $1M per year. This gives Miller Haga’s attorneys a unique perspective – they know what their clients want and perhaps more importantly, what clients don’t want from outside counsel. With this perspective, Miller Haga Law Group serves as a strategic legal partner and business advisor, providing the firm’s clients with pragmatic, cost–effective legal and business solutions that minimize risk and maximize profits.

How do you define success?
In my opinion, success is setting impactful goals and relentlessly pursuing them right up to the moment you achieve them. Then you reset and do it all over again. My career and the results I have brought my clients proves that this strategy consistently works.

I have served as lead counsel on several major matters over the past 24 months. I have negotiated a celebrity endorsement for an alcohol brand, served as general counsel for a major entertainment venture; provided compliance advice for a large Southern California theme park, negotiated leases for a casual dining restaurant chain, and negotiated equipment rental agreements with major television/motion picture production houses.

In 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, I was selected to the Super Lawyers® list for Southern California, placing me among the top five percent of the region’s attorneys. I was a San Fernando Valley Business Journal Mentor nominee in 2020 and 2021 and was honored by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2021 – Women of Influence: Attorneys. I’ve also been nominated as a Top Women Lawyer for 2022 for the Daily Journal. I’m very proud 9f these achievements but in all honesty, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Success and my determination to achieve impactful goals extends outside my law practice too. I am a group leader for the business networking organization ProVisors and a speaker and panelist at conferences focused on topics like corporate formations, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment-based venue business affairs, theme park legislation, real estate, intellectual property and licensing. I am a proud member of the California Attractions and Parks Association, board member for Hillel for Utah, former general counsel for a non-profit dance company and a former board member for a non-profit youth organization.

In the past year, I have also served as strategic counsel to several companies involved in complex litigation and business disputes and helped negotiate the restructuring of multiple units of national and regional restaurant chains in response to COVID-19. Additionally, I have worked to restructure shareholder equity interest in a C. Corporation for the purposes of long-term tax and estate planning.

Finally, as an active charity donor, I utilize social media connectivity to donate to organizations like St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, pet rescues, local small businesses, and medical funds for those in need. I truly try to embody what it means to be a mindful woman in leadership and that motivates every aspect of my professional work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.millerhaga.com