Ben Miller-Gootnick has spent most of his legal career in public service. The Washington, D.C.-based public law attorney has worked in the legislative and executive branches, completed federal clerkships in the judicial branch, worked on appellate matters and congressional investigations in private practice, and received recognition for his pro bono legal work.
Ben Miller-Gootnick’s public-service experience also includes an undergraduate practicum with the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, service as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, and service as counsel on the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary — a wide range of public service commitments.
Ben Miller-Gootnick and Government Service
Ben Miller-Gootnick’s government service has spanned all three branches of the federal government. As a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, which represents the United States before the Supreme Court, he worked on federal appellate litigation and successfully briefed and argued a case before a federal court of appeals. He later served as counsel on the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, where he gained legislative-branch experience. He also clerked in the federal courts and, in private practice, focused on appellate matters and congressional investigations. Ben Miller-Gootnick’s government and appellate record therefore includes service connected to Congress, executive-branch legal work, the federal courts, and appellate litigation.
Public Service Before and Beyond Government Roles
That public-service theme is also present in his academic record. At Brown University, Ben Miller-Gootnick served on the Student Advisory Committee of the Swearer Center for Public Service and was awarded the public policy program’s Lippitt Prize for Public Service, the Alfred H. Joslin Award for contributions to student life, and the Royce and Harvey A. Baker Fellowships. The Royce Fellowship supported community-engaged research in Macedonia on the Colorful Revolution, a 2016 protest movement there.
At Harvard Law School, Ben Miller-Gootnick graduated magna cum laude and served as an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also provided research assistance to several Harvard Law School faculty members, including contributions acknowledged in the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court’s Final Report. His academic work therefore includes both institutional recognition and documented research activity.
Legal Scholarship on Public Law
Ben Miller-Gootnick has also published scholarship on public law. His note, “Boundaries of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,” published in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, examined whether the Federal Vacancies Reform Act authorizes acting appointments when a vacancy results from presidential removal. The paper won the ABA Gellhorn-Sargentich Law Student Essay Competition and the ACS Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. It has also been cited in reports for the Administrative Conference of the United States and by the Brennan Center for Justice.
A separate article, “How the House Sues,” published in the University of Illinois Law Review, addressed the House of Representatives’ delegation of litigation authority to its Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, including the constitutional and justiciability questions that delegation raises. Ben Miller-Gootnick has also written Lawfare essays on presidential succession and federal appointments. These publications show a sustained engagement with public-law questions in addition to government work, appellate practice, and pro bono activity.
Pro Bono Legal Work as a Separate Form of Service
Pro bono legal work forms another distinct part of his profile. Ben Miller-Gootnick appeared on the 2024 D.C. Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll, an annual list from the D.C. Courts recognizing attorneys who provide 50 or more hours of pro bono service. That work was separate from his government positions and highlights an additional form of legal service to the greater community.
About Ben Miller-Gootnick
Ben Miller-Gootnick is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney whose work centers on public law and federal institutions. He studied at Harvard Law School and Brown University, clerked in the federal courts, worked in the Office of the Solicitor General and the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, and spent time in private practice. Ben Miller-Gootnick’s work has appeared in the Harvard Journal on Legislation and the University of Illinois Law Review, and he was named to the 2024 D.C. Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll.