MEET JONATHAN
Jonathan Miller, U.S. Hemp Attorney, has emerged as one of the nation’s leading hemp lawyers, while serving as one of the industry’s leading advocates for legalization. Upon leading successful lobbying efforts that laid the groundwork for the current hemp pilot program regime, Miller now serves as trusted counsel to dozens of companies in the industrial hemp space. In 2014, Miller helped lead the successful battle against the DEA’s efforts to ban importation of hemp seed, and he now serves as general counsel to the US Hemp Roundtable, the industry’s leading business trade association, which led the fight to securing permanent federal legalization of hemp and continues to address the development of hemp-friendly state regulation.
Miller leads Frost Brown Todd's hemp practice group and is Member-in-Charge of FBT's Lexington office. Prior to joining FBT, Miller spent nearly two decades in public service, where he held numerous senior positions in state and federal government, including two terms as Kentucky’s State Treasurer, in addition to serving as Kentucky’s Secretary of Finance and Administration, Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Energy, and Legislative Director for Congressman Jim Cooper.
Miller graduated with high honors from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
EXPERIENCE
"The Attorney" - Law Practice and Legal Expertise
Miller currently serves as the Member-in-Charge of Frost Brown Todd’s Lexington office, and leads the hemp practice for the firm which features 500 attorneys in nine states. Miller is the trusted counsel to dozens of companies in the hemp space, offering a full-service complement of law partners to provide client counsel on issues ranging from intellectual property to corporate transactions to FDA regulation. Miller also co-founded FBT’s Kentucky government relations practice as Principal of its government relations subsidiary, CivicPoint.
"The Advocate" - Politics, Lobbying and Industry Counsel
Miller became active in politics at an early age, founding and directing Students for Al Gore for President in 1988, reviving College Democrats of America in 1989, serving as a Deputy Political Director for the Clinton/Gore 1992 presidential campaign, chairing the Kentucky Democratic Party in 2007, and running successfully twice for State Treasurer (1999, 2003), and unsuccessfully for Congress (1998) and Governor (2007). During his nearly two decades of public service, Miller held number senior positions in in state and federal government, including two terms as Kentucky’s elected State Treasurer, serving in Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s Cabinet as Secretary of Finance and Administration, as Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Energy, and as Legislative Director for Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN).
While Miller learned everything he needed to know about this country through his public service, he learned most of all that to be the change he wanted to be in office, he’d have to stop campaigning for one. Since retiring from the political scene, Miller has become active from the outside serving as the nation’s leading advocate and lobbyist for hemp legalization. Beginning in 2013, working side by side with Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, passage was secured in Kentucky for one of the nation’s first hemp bills. Miller then worked closely with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others to help craft key Federal statutes, including the 2014 and 2018 US Farm Bills, which have permanently legalized hemp and unleashed the exciting new industry.
Miller launched the predecessor of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable in 2014, which became the nation's leading grass-tops organization committed to securing congressional passage of permanent legalization of hemp. The efforts of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable helped result in the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the list of controlled substances and legalized hemp production nationwide. Since then, Miller has spearheaded the launch of sister organizations The U.S. Hemp Authority -- providing high standards and best practices for the emerging industry -- and the U.S. Hemp Farming Alliance to assist farmers, producers, retailers, and consumers in the navigation of the constantly evolving hemp industry.
"The Author & Orator" - Writing Portfolio and Public Speaking
Whether it's delivering a speech, or writing a manifesto, Miller has always had a knack for words. His vast knowledge and expertise on a variety of subjects translates into all of his creative work. Miller is a Contributor to The Daily Beast, and has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Times of Israel, and has appeared on dozens of national news talk shows including: MSNBC’s The Cycle, Fox News’ Fox and Friends and Happening Now, CNN’s America’s Choice and Crossfire, CNBC’s Morning Call, NBC’s Dateline NBC, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and Bloomberg’s Market Makers; serves as a semi-regular American politics commentator for Canada’s CTV News and the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Wrap; and even played straight man to correspondent/comedian Al Madrigal on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also testified before the U.S. House on energy efficiency and the U.S. Senate on student credit card debt. On April Fools Day 2011, he launched The Recovering Politician (Read The RP‘s mission statement.)
To compensate for his political obsessions, Miller has also devoted himself to his faith. As a high school student, the he served as President of the North American Federation of Temple Youth, the Reform Jewish movement’s youth organization that his father headed a generation before. For more than a decade, Miller taught Sunday School to high school students at Temple Adath Israel on the subject of Tikkun Olam, the Jewish mandate to help make the world a better place. His faith journey led him to pen The Compassionate Community: Ten Values to Unite America (Palgrave MacMillan: 2006), in which he shares his vision of a political system based on the universal principle, in the words of the Scripture, “to love your neighbor as yourself,” and of a society where Americans of all faiths can build a stronger democracy.
In 2012, Miller published The Liberal Case for Israel: Debunking Eight Crazy Lies About the Jewish State, in an effort to clear up toxic misinformation about Israel and share with his fellow liberals and progressives the extraordinary liberal democracy that is the Jewish State. In 2013, he edited and co-authored The Recovering Politician‘s Twelve Step Program to Survive Crisis, in which more than a dozen “recovering politicians” share their twelve step program on how to survive crises – from highly publicized and politicized scandals, to smaller, more intimate interpersonal struggles. They outline deliberate, focused and vigorous courses of action and reaction, gleaned from their own experiences – often dramatic, sometimes painful – under the piercing lights of the political arena.
PORTFOLIO
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS & THE US HEMP BRANDS
As a key force behind the founding of the US Hemp Roundtable, US Hemp Authority, and the US Hemp Farmers Alliance, Jonathan Miller has helped buildan extensive portfolio of proactive and influential national organizations which aim to establish standards and infrastructure for the US hemp industry. Click on the links below to learn more.
Launched under a prior name in 2014, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable is a coalition of more than 80 hemp companies across the country – representing every link of the product chain, from seed to sale – and all of the industry’s major national grassroots organizations. In 2018, Miller and the US Hemp Roundtable achieved the organization's primary mission of securing passage of bi-partisan legislation in the U.S. Congress that established hemp federally as an agricultural commodity, permanently removing it from regulation as a controlled substance. The Roundtable today focuses on legislation in the states, as well as developing a legal regulatory path with the FDA for CBD. Click here to learn more about the US Hemp Roundtable.
The U.S. Hemp Authority™ Certification Program serves as the industry's initiative to provide high standards, best practices and self-regulation, to give confidence to consumers and law enforcement that hemp products are safe, and legal. In an effort funded by the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, and joined by organizations such as the Hemp Industries Association, industry leading firms, top-tier testing laboratories, and quality assessors developed comprehensive guidance for growers and processors of hemp. Companies that comply with the Authority's standards and pass a third party audit, are awarded a seal of certification. Click here to learn more about the U.S. Hemp The U.S. Hemp Authority™ Certification Program.
The U.S. Hemp Farming Alliance (“USHFA”) was founded in 2018 to represent U.S. hemp farmers and create an organization that advocates solely for their interests – before federal officials, state regulators, consumer groups and various other companies and organizations further down the hemp food chain. Click here to learn more about the US Hemp Farming Alliance.
PORTFOLIO
PUBLISHED WORKS AND AUTHOR PROFILES
See a list and links to Jonathan Miller's published works and author profiles below.
THE PLAYER
WORLD SERIES OF POKER
In Miller's very limited free time, he enjoys competing in no-limit Texas hold 'em poker tournaments. His biggest triumph was at Las Vegas' World Series of Poker, where he reached the Final Table in a 2012 tournament.
Click here to learn more about Miller, The Poker Player.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
TIMELINE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Scroll through the timeline to take a look at some of the highlights and most proud accomplishments of Miller's extensive career in law, politics and writing over the past three decades.
FEATURED NEWS
Learn more about US Hemp Attorney Jonathan Miller in the news! Click here to see the latest features.