Adjunct Access: Judge Kara J. Miller
Kara Miller’s career started in a conventional fashion – an undergrad thesis on women in prison led to law school at George Washington University. At GW, Miller quickly realized that “she was not sure why she was there”. The aggressive, even antagonistic atmosphere was in sharp contrast to Miller’s collaborative nature. Miller completed her law degree, but knew she did not want to practice law for long. She kept hearing that she could “do anything” with a law degree. However, (unsurprisingly), law school career services focus on legal positions and are not prepared to help students with a non-traditional job search. After graduating, Miller decided to join a small firm to gain practical legal experience, but as expected, she did not enjoy the work and wanted something else.
This is where Miller’s uncommon career path begins. After two years at the firm, Miller headed to France for a six-week immersion program. Her goal was to improve her French and land a position in Europe, so she headed to Brussels where she was called for job interview after job interview at corporations. But no job offers. The companies were “not quite sure what to do with an American lawyer with no business experience,” Miller says. She realized that she needed an MBA to get into the business world. Miller headed to New York, where she started her MBA at Fordham, concentrating in International Marketing. She found Fordham to be a refreshing change from GW – the atmosphere was congenial and cooperative. To fund her MBA, she applied for a Graduate Assistant (GA) position. She hoped for a slot with the Marketing Department, but instead was selected to work in the Dean’s office.
When Dean Arthur Taylor learned of Miller’s law degree, he asked her to draft speeches for him. The GA position turned into something extraordinary: She wrote the Dean’s speeches, traveled with him to speaking engagements, gained an amazing perspective on the school, and developed professional bonds with many professors. While she was still a student, the area Chair of the Marketing Department, asked if Miller might create and teach a course on marketing and the law. At the same time, her Economics professor, Michael Olsher, asked if she would come work for his steel company, Olsher Metals. Olsher offered to pay for her degree in exchange for working for his company. It was a tremendous opportunity to gain practical business experience.
After graduating from Fordham, Miller stayed with the steel company and began teaching the marketing/law course. Working for Olsher Metals, she learned about running a business, especially how an entrepreneur manages a company and how to market and sell a product. Olsher launched a second business - a sports representation agency; allowing Miller to add on the job title of Client Manager. When she wasn’t teaching or helping manage a steel business, she was negotiating contracts and marketing deals for football and soccer players. “Sports is far more interesting than steel,” Miller says convincingly.
In 1998, after five years, Olsher relocated both businesses to Boca Raton, Florida but offered Miller a position in a NY satellite office. She decided to instead investigate a business idea she had for a “home delivery service targeted at the needs of new moms.” (She quickly saw that the business needed more capital than she had available, so she decided against it.) While researching the business design, Miller fell back on her law degree for income and began working per diem as an administrative law judge for the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
This is where Miller’s career path made an interesting zigzag. After years of using her law degree to pay the bills but never really enjoying the jobs, Miller was surprised to find that she loved being a judge. At the same time as this epiphany, Miller’s MBA and management experience led the TLC to offer her a position supervising and organizing the judges. The judges were all per diem – everyone worked only as needed, none had TLC offices, and none had ties to the commission or each other – so finding ways to motivate the judges and get them to work as a true team was a unique experience and extremely satisfying. Miller added on two additional per diem judgeships – one with the Department of Education and one with Parking Violations. The three jobs meant an enjoyable variety of cases, courthouses, and co-workers – but long hours and no single office to “call home”.
After two years at three jobs without a central workplace, Miller decided it was time to settle down at one desk. Partially because of her MBA and her experience supervising judges, she was offered the managing attorney position at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). OATH is New York City’s central, independent tribunal with the authority to conduct administrative hearings for other City agencies. As managing attorney, Miller managed the judges and their schedules, promoted business, and acted as OATH’s PR contact and EEO Officer. After 2 years, she was appointed as an administrative law judge with a five-year term.
Almost fifty percent of OATH’s cases are settled without a trial, which is an impressive and enviable statistic for any courthouse. Miller knows that her MBA – where she learned to negotiate, manage people, and enhance her people skills – helps her resolve cases without a trial. OATH judges see cases relating to a number of areas, such as, civil service disciplinary cases, discrimination cases, contract disputes with the City, and licensing cases. OATH offers the variety that Miller loved about her three per diem positions but in the morning, she doesn’t have to check her calendar to figure out which courthouse she’s headed to!
All the while, Miller has continued teaching at Fordham, but now teaches the core Business Law I course. The process of teaching is rewarding for Miller who loves to “see the light bulb go off” in a student’s head. Students tell Miller that they were able to use her lessons outside the classroom – when purchasing a home or reading an employment contract, for example. The most important thing for Miller’s students to take away from the class is that the law touches every aspect of their lives. “Contracts may be boring, but think of how many you’ve signed without truly understanding what it said?” she says.
Miller believes it is vital that core courses “be fun.” She empathizes with the part-time students in particular. She knows these students work all day, come to class tired, and probably have a class before or after hers – not to mention, possibly a family at home. Miller’s opinion is that it is the teacher’s responsibility to hold the students’ attention and give them something to contemplate. One method Miller uses is to select the “quirky” or “unusual” cases in the textbook to make it more interesting.
At every level of her education, Miller’s favorite classes were always engaging and interactive. That is now Miller’s goal as a Professor. She moves around the class – rarely standing in one place for long – and she tries to learn every student’s name quickly. One important component of Miller’s class is building bonds between the students. Miller is proud that due to her “prodding the students to meet their classmates”, three students have gotten jobs from each other and many have become good friends. At the very least, everyone figures out whom to borrow notes from!
Having held so many potentially “politically-sticky” positions – including internships for 3 U.S. congressmen and a state senator – Miller has advice on dealing with political situations. She recommends – for the classroom, boardroom, courtroom, capital hill - do not always take what someone says at face value. Miller highly recommends learning to read body language and really listening to what is being said. She also believes you should gather past history; knowing that additional information can help you determine “why people are doing what they are doing”. Further, she says, “Don’t make rash decisions when you find yourself in a sticky situation or dealing with difficult people. Take time to think things through. Your decisions will have ramifications for you, your career, your company, and your co-workers.”
Miller’s last piece of advice for MBAs is to learn from your mistakes. “It is inevitable that you are going to make mistakes; it is how you deal with them that defines who you are. Don’t cover up mistakes; own up to them, fix them, and move on, and the sooner the better!”
|
 |
|
|
|