Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007.

In 2007, Miers returned to private practice, becoming a partner in the litigation and public policy group at Locke Lord.

"[1] She is the fourth of the five children of real estate investor Harris Wood Miers Sr., and his wife, the former Erma (Sally) Grace Richardson.

The economic plight of her family was so dire that she almost dropped out in her freshman year, but she was able to find part-time work that put her through college.

When a lawyer helped organize her family's financial situation, Miers was inspired to enter law school.

When the merger that created Locke, Liddell & Sapp took place in 1999, she became the co-managing partner of a legal business with more than 400 lawyers.

[11] In 1989, Miers formally registered with the Republican Party and was elected to a two-year term as an at-large member of the Dallas City Council.

[13] Miers met George W. Bush in January 1989 at an annual Austin dinner affair for legislators and other important people.

Miers subsequently worked as general counsel for Bush's transition team in 1994, when he was first elected Governor of Texas.

The ABA had adopted abortion neutrality at its 1990 annual meeting in Chicago after strong opposition by the State Bar of Texas to a pro-choice position.

She said her resignation had nothing to do with lagging sales in the system's biggest game, Lotto Texas, but rather that she wanted to allow her successor time to prepare for rebidding the lottery's primary operator contract.

In November 2004, Bush named her to succeed Alberto Gonzales, his nominee for Attorney General, to the post of White House Counsel, the chief legal adviser for the Office of the President.

On July 1, 2005, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her intention to retire upon the confirmation of a successor.

Meanwhile, Bush considered nominating Miers as O'Connor's successor, factoring into account bipartisan suggestions by Senators Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, that the nominee should come from outside the appellate court system.

[26] This caused several commentators to draw parallels with the 2000 election, when Dick Cheney, the head of Bush's vice-presidential search committee, was ultimately selected as the running mate.

[30] In addition, Miers had rarely handled appeals and did not understand the complicated constitutional questions senators asked of her.

[30] To White House lawyers, Miers was "less an attorney than a law firm manager and bar association president.

"[31] In an unprecedented move, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy also requested that Miers re-do some of her answers to the questionnaire submitted to her by the committee, noting that her responses were "inadequate", "insufficient", and "insulting" because she failed or refused to adequately answer various questions with acceptable accuracy or with sufficient detail.

[32] Miers also was claimed to have privately expressed a belief in the right to privacy to the pro-choice Arlen Specter, only to later deny that she had communicated that position.

Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Sam Brownback then drafted a letter asking the President's office to turn over legal memoranda and briefs Miers had written for Bush, in order to elucidate her views on political matters.

In her letter withdrawing her nomination, she pointed to the senators' request for confidential documents as potentially damaging the executive branch's independence.

[37] Speaking with NBC News' Meet the Press on October 23, 2005, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: "...if you were to hold the vote today, she would not get a majority, either in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor.

"[38] However, speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation the same day, committee chair Specter said that most senators were waiting for the hearings before making up their mind.

After the 2006 elections, when Democrats won a majority of both chambers of Congress, Bolten asked again for her departure, arguing that the president needed an aggressive lawyer and increased staff for the Office of Legal Counsel to fend off congressional inquiries and subpoenas.

Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, wrote to Miers in January 2006 to recommend that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S.

On June 13, 2007, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas to Miers and to Sara M. Taylor, former deputy assistant to President Bush and the White House director of political affairs, asking them to produce documents and appear before the committees to testify about what role, if any, both may have had in the U.S. Attorney firings controversy.

[54] On March 4, 2009, Miers and former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush Karl Rove agreed to testify under oath before Congress about the firings of U.S.