Miller Maki LLP is now celebrating over 100 years of service to Sudbury and Northern Ontario: 1913–2022
The History and Founding Partners of Miller Maki LLP
George M. Miller, Q.C.
Miller Maki LLP can trace its roots back to 1909 with the establishment of the firm R. R. McKessock in Sudbury, Ontario. George Miller joined Mr. McKessock in 1913. Mr. Miller was left to run the firm alone however when war broke out in 1914 and Mr. McKessock joined the war effort. He was instructed to stay in Sudbury and ensure that the firm remained profitable in order to provide for Mr. McKessock’s family which became especially important as Mr. McKessock was taken as a prisoner of war and did not return to Canada until the end of the war.
George Miller remained in practice with Mr. McKessock until 1920 when he ventured out on his own to practice criminal law. In 1931 he was named King Counsel.
Mr. Miller was very active within the Sudbury community. He was elected Sudbury Town Council in 1926 and chaired the Property Committee introducing a number of measures aimed at improving efficiency in civic administration. Mr. Miller was a member of the first Board of Regents of the University of Sudbury (1958), part owner and president of the Sudbury Star (1951), and a co-founder of the first privately owned television station in Canada (CKSO) which was also the first to broadcast in colour in 1966.
Kauko E. Maki
In the mid 1930’s Mr. Miller took on his first articling student in Mr. Kauko Elias Maki who started in 1934. At that time the articling process included practical experience in a Toronto firm along with courses at Osgoode over a period of 6 years. Mr. Maki was called to the bar in 1940 (one of the first lawyers of Finnish heritage to be called in Ontario) and remained with Mr. Miller, thus giving Miller Maki LLP its current name.
Today the Partners and Staff of Miller Maki LLP continue in the tradition started by our founders, looking after the legal needs of the vibrant and diverse communities of the North. We are able to provide legal services in both of Canada’s official languages, and continue to service Sudbury and its surrounding area. We have also expanded our area of geographic service since the times of George Miller and Kauko Maki, and today our lawyers travel the North with matters in Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Thunder Bay and beyond.