‘I’m very thankful,’ Miller says as he prepares to leave office after serving for 40 years

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – The longest-serving lawyer common in US historical past is sharing his gratitude with Iowans as he prepares to depart workplace on January third, 2023.

‘I’m very grateful,’ mentioned Iowa Legal professional Normal Tom Miller. “We did it our approach. We by no means compromised on our values and ideas. That’s enormously satisfying to me. I’m so grateful to my workers and impressed with their high quality of labor, their professionalism, and their dedication.”

Miller grew to become generally known as a pacesetter nationally in client safety. He led many multistate lawsuits towards main firms throughout his time in workplace.

“I grew to become an enormous believer in multistates. As a small state, we couldn’t compete with the assets of enormous firms,” Miller mentioned. “By working collectively as state AGs and with the federal authorities, we have been in a position to accomplish issues we couldn’t alone.”

Miller and his workplace have not too long ago been a pacesetter in instances towards pharmaceutical corporations, distributors, and others who contributed to the opioid disaster. The settlements are anticipated to herald almost $350 million to the state of Iowa over the following 18 years and have resulted in new restrictions on gross sales and advertising of opioids.

A few of his workplace’s accomplishments additionally embrace supporting legal justice reform, creating the nation’s first farm division and combating consolidation within the agriculture trade, and reforming how sexual assault investigations are carried out in Iowa. A number of main accomplishments additionally embrace:

• The Grasp Settlement Settlement with tobacco corporations in 1998. The settlement created restrictions on the promoting, advertising and promotion of cigarettes, together with a ban on focusing on kids by promoting, and led to reductions in smoking. Within the final 24 years, Iowa has obtained greater than $1.4 billion in funds beneath the settlement. “Earlier than then, the tobacco corporations had by no means paid a dime,” Miller mentioned.
• Difficult the Microsoft monopoly, which led to a settlement in 2002 and modifications within the software program trade. “This antitrust case was good for competitors, good for innovation, good for enterprise, and, most vital, good for customers,” Miller mentioned.
• Recovering $52 billion for American owners within the nationwide financial institution mortgage case in 2012.

Now that he’s stepping down, Miller nonetheless plans to maintain busy, however in additional of a part-time function.

“I’m wanting ahead to the longer term. I need to keep energetic in points I get pleasure from. I haven’t had a lot day without work since regulation college, so I’m wanting ahead to having fun with a while off.”

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