Page 15 - Dallas Vol 5 No 3

Milner was hired by the Dallas County District Attorney’s O ce, where he surprised himself
by falling in love with criminal work. He resolved never to return to civil practice.
“I didn’t want to leave Dallas. at limited my options. e stock market crashed, real estate was not doing well, and I found myself tending bar part-time,” he says.
A family friend, a partner in a law rm, found him a position clerking at the law rm Hughes & Luce in the litigation section.
Of his time there, Milner recalls: “On the totem pole, I was the bottom. But the work was exciting. We’d get hired on a case and you’d have to become an expert in that area. You had to learn that industry. I thought it was a fascinat- ing deal- every new case allows you the opportunity to become an expert in some area whether it be technology or oil and gas or some other eld.”
He found he also loved the people, “I thought, ‘ is is the deal for me,’ I applied to law school, got accepted, and moved on in a direction I’d never planned.”
Milner attended Oklahoma City University School of Law, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where he was a member of the Law Review and graduated summa cum laude in 1992. He won four scholarships for academic achieve- ment and was a member of two national moot court teams. He was a Merit Scholar, won ve American Juris- prudence awards, and earned membership in the Order of Barristers, and the International Legal Honor Society of Phi Delta Phi.
Milner was hired by the Dallas County District Attor- ney’s O ce, where he surprised himself by falling in love with criminal work. He resolved never to return to civil practice. In 1994, Milner le the District Attorney’s O ce to join his father, George Milner, Jr., and began defending some of the same people he’d previously prosecuted. One
such client said, “It didn’t take me long in the rst trial when you prosecuted me to realize I needed you as my lawyer.”
Milner has appeared three times on the nationally broadcast Court TV, has been selected numerous times as one of Dallas’ Best Lawyers in D Magazine, and has been named by Texas Monthly Magazine, as a Texas Su- per Lawyer in the eld of white-collar criminal defense. He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, a multi-volume national listing of attorneys.
“I love being a lawyer; I’ve been doing it for 26 years. I’m blessed to have fallen into something I love. And, I happen to be pretty good at it,” he says.
In 2002 he co-founded Milner & Finn.
RIDING A JUGGERNAUT
Milner’s philosophy for building a successful criminal defense rm was to seek out experienced lawyers who were “hungry” – lawyers who had a solid track record of accomplishment, but who were looking to invest them- selves fully in an up-and-coming organization. Milner says there wasn’t time to train rookies. We all had about a decade of experience. “We built this juggernaut and we quickly became known as a powerhouse. We also had a lot of fun taking care of the people we represented.”
He says that contrary to images in popular culture, most of his clients are normal, everyday people. “ e clients we represent are people you would go to lunch with or invite into your home. ey are people who happened to be ac- cused of something. We are not representing someone who
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