Ninth Circuit and Hawaii appellate specialist

Ms. McMillen is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawai‘i, and New York Law School, where she graduated with honors in 1987. She began practicing law at the national law firm Lowenstein Sandler, representing individual and corporate clients in business, commercial, insurance, and employment litigation, as well as appellate matters. She subsequently joined Ross & Hardies (now McGuireWoods), where she represented financial institutions in commercial litigation, bankruptcy proceedings, and appeals. In 1998, she returned home to Hawai‘i. Since then, she has developed an extensive practice in civil and criminal appellate litigation in federal and state courts, as well as family law.

In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. McMillen has extensive mediation experience (www.hawaiimediate.com). She serves as a mediator for Dispute Prevention & Resolution (DPR) in Honolulu, the Mediation Center of the Pacific, and the Hawai‘i Supreme Court's Appellate Mediation Program. Her education and training include advanced coursework at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law. Following five years of study and training sponsored by the Native Hawaiian Bar Association under the direction of Kumu Lynette Kaopuiki Paglinawan, she was recognized as a haku ho‘oponopono.

Ms. McMillen is a former per diem judge for the State of Hawai‘i, Second Circuit (Maui). She has served as an adjunct faculty member at Hawai‘i Pacific University and the University of Hawai‘i Maui College. She is a coauthor of the Ninth Circuit Appellate Practice Guide, which is available to attorneys and the public on the Ninth Circuit's website.

Her service to the legal community includes serving as a Lawyer Representative to the United States District Court for the District of Hawai‘i; an Appellate Lawyer Representative to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; a member of the Board of Directors of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association; a member of the Board of Directors of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association; a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panels for the United States District Courts in Hawai‘i and Southern California; and a volunteer with Volunteer Legal Services Hawai‘i. She has also served as a mentor attorney in the Ninth Circuit's mentoring program. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, she received the Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award from the Hawai‘i Access to Justice Commission.

She is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Founding Fellow of the Hawai‘i Bar Foundation, and a member of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association and the Maui County Bar Association. On Maui, she serves as a liturgist and as a member of the Parish Relations Committee at Keawala‘i Congregational Church.

Ms. McMillen is admitted to practice law in Hawai‘i and New York, as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, and Ninth Circuits; the United States District Court for the District of Hawai‘i; and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Prior to her legal career, Ms. McMillen earned a master's degree in anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington. She also worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.