by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Kirk Miller, a candidate for University counsel, said he enjoys working under the public eye.
"Everything is watched. You know when you do something it may very well be on the front page of the paper the next day, or at some point," he said. "That requires you to manage in a particular way. And it's also, quite frankly, a fun place to be because you're at the heart of what people care about."
Miller spoke Thursday at a public forum in the SUB. He was the second of three finalists for the position to interview at a forum.
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The University counsel is the legal adviser to the University president and UNM Board of Regents, and is in charge of the University's legal office.
Miller works at a San Francisco law firm that deals with employment and financial fraud litigation.
However, the experience that would serve him best as University counsel is the time he spent as general counsel at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, he said. Those nonprofit organizations have about 130,000 employees, and Miller supervised a department of 65 lawyers, according to a profile handed out at the forum.
He prefers working as an attorney at a large institution to working in private practice, he said.
"For me it's a better and more fun way to practice, and I think it's a better use of whatever skill set I have than being on the private practice side," he said. "Which tends to be more narrow, it tends to be more technical, it tends to be more paper-driven. This kind of job tends to be a much more human job. It tends to be much more about problem solving and coming up with a strategy."
Five people were in the audience. There were two students, but both were from the University Counsel Office.
Miller said the University counsel can have an impact on students, although they might not realize it.
"What's the mission of the institution, and who is the ultimate client of the institution? It's the students. They're the real customers here," he said. "Although it would be hard to say we're going to do X, Y and Z for students. In a larger sense, so much of what the office is about is to enhance the mission of the University, and it is for students."
Before working at Kaiser, Miller worked as an attorney at American Medical International, Inc.
Cindy Morris, a manager at Bunting Visual Resources Library at UNM, said she attended the forum mostly out of curiosity about the position.
Miller seemed well qualified, she said.
"I appreciate someone being able to draw comparisons about his former job and the job here," she said.
Her only concern was Miller's lack of experience at educational institutions, but his experience at Kaiser seemed adequate, she said.
The finalists, who also include Jo Ann Stringfield and Patrick Apodaca, were chosen by a committee last summer. David Harris, acting president of UNM, will recommend one candidate to the Board of Regents. The regents will decide whether to hire that person during their April meeting.
Patrick Apodaca will speak at a forum on Monday in the SUB Fiesta Rooms A&B from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
