Harriet Ellan Miers is the White House Counsel in the Presidential Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, replacing Alberto Gonzales who was appointed Attorney General. She was previously Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff.

Miers, a Texas native studied at Southern Methodist University, where she earned undergraduate and law degrees. She was George W. Bush's personal lawyer. In 1985, she became the first female president of the Dallas Bar Association and in 1992 became the first woman to head the Texas State Bar . She has also sat as an at-large member on the Dallas city council.

During George Bush's term as Governor of Texas, Miers chaired the Texas Lottery Commission (1995-2000) and then followed Bush to Washington, DC, serving as his staff secretary during the first two years of his presidential term. In 2003, she rose to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff and is said to be a close personal friend of the president. 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 advisor for the Office of the President.

External link

• official White House biography