Dynamic Representation
Our lawyers strive to exceed your expectations and deliver effective representation. We encourage you to contact Knott, Berger & Miller, LLP in your time of legal need.
We employ an efficient and knowledgeable staff of lawyers and assistants who present persuasive cases for people throughout North Carolina. To learn more about our professional and education experience, please access the attorney profiles below.
Joe Thomas Knott, III
Mr. Knott has been practicing law throughout North Carolina since 1980. He is admitted in the North Carolina Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Middle District of North Carolina and the Western District of North Carolina. He is also admitted to practice before the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits in Richmond, Virginia.
He has tried over 100 jury trials to verdict and has argued cases before the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the North Carolina Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. He believes the law is a gift from God and its purpose is to order a fair, honest and safe society. Lawyers are stewards of that gift.
Joe started his practice in 1980. After a year in private practice, he was appointed under President Ronald Reagan as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina in the United States Department of Justice. There he served as a civil trial lawyer from 1981 to 1983 and a criminal prosecutor from 1983 to 1985. Since leaving the Department of Justice, Joe has represented people who have been wrongfully and negligently injured. He opposes, in 100% of these cases, either commercial insurance companies or medical malpractice insurance companies. He also litigates against the state and federal governments when their agents and employees wrongfully and negligently injure innocent citizens.
Joe was born at REX Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1951. He received his B.S.B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1974; his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois in 1978, and his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, J.D., in 1980.
Joe is a member of the Wake County and the North Carolina Bar Associations, the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. Joe served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board from 1984 to 1992. He was appointed to the Board of Directors at St. David’s School in Raleigh in 1989 and has served as Chairman since 1998. He was the Republican candidate for Attorney General of North Carolina in 2004, and has a Peer Review Rating of AV® Preeminent™.
Joe and his wife, Sarah, have six children and reside in Raleigh. He is involved with various church-based and community organizations. He is currently serving as an elder at Christ Baptist Church in Raleigh and has taught Sunday School continuously for the past 29 years.
Bruce W. Berger
Bruce joined Knott, Berger & Miller’s predecessor law firm as a partner in 1987. He began his practice in Charleston, West Virginia in 1980, where he primarily defended doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. Bruce moved to Raleigh with his family in 1987 and continued his defense practice, until joining Knott, Berger & Miller’s predecessor firm, where he now represents injured persons in personal injury cases, in the areas of medical malpractice, nursing home negligence and significant motor vehicle crashes, state and federal tort claims. He also assists people and businesses when their insurance companies fail to pay claims as they should, primarily in property and casualty claims, including “bad faith” litigation.
Bruce has over 25 years of experience trying cases, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in the state and federal courts throughout West Virginia and North Carolina. He has also represented individuals in lawsuits in Virginia and Tennessee. In addition to trial work, Bruce has represented clients on appellate matters in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. He has also appeared in the North Carolina Industrial Commission on behalf of individuals and companies in both workers’ compensation and State tort claim litigation.
Born in Beech Grove, Indiana and raised in Indianapolis, Bruce received his B.A degree, cum laude, with honors, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and his law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas. Bruce is a regular speaker at continuing legal education seminars on various aspects of trial practice, civil procedure, ethics and personal injury litigation. He is a member of the Wake County and North Carolina Bar Associations, the West Virginia State Bar, the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. He has served on several committees of the North Carolina Bar Association, and has a Peer Review Rating of AV® Preeminent™.
Bruce and his wife, Susanne, a registered nurse, have four children and live in Raleigh. In addition to spending time with his family, Bruce’s interests include reading, photography, swimming, skiing, hiking, camping and other outdoor activities. He is actively involved with his church, and other faith-based organizations and coached a local high school swim team for years. He also volunteers his time as a mentor in downtown Raleigh, helping children with Language Arts.
W. Stacy Miller, II
Stacy Miller, II received his B.A. From Wake Forest University and his J.D. from Campbell University School of Law, where he was selected as a member of the National Trial Team, Phi Delta Phi Academic Fraternity and the Order of the Old Kevitt. Stacy was admitted to the NC State Bar in 1994. After interning in the Wake County District Attorneys office, he began his career as a criminal defense attorney, which gave him the opportunity to try hundreds of cases and get daily experience in the courtroom. He brings this vast experience in state and federal court to the cases he litigates today, which include medical negligence, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, business and commercial torts. Stacy has consistently been awarded the highest AV rating by his peers for excellence in the legal profession. In 2009, he joined forces with Joe Knott and Bruce Berger to form, Knott, Berger and Miller, LLP.
What Stacy likes best about his job is attaining justice for people who have been wronged. He has represented clients against huge corporations like Walmart, Lowe’s, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. He has represented people on death row, and he has been part of multi-million dollar settlements. He is just as proud of the smaller cases, such as the time he represented a young girl in student court who was wrongly expelled by her middle school.
Stacy is not afraid to have the odds stacked against him....in fact, he prefers it. A former quarterback at Needham B. Broughton High School and defensive back at Wake Forest University, he is both a team player and a tough competitor. His secret — be unafraid to fail — which leads him to innovative strategies for winning. He brings that positive winning attitude to whatever he does for the benefit of his clients.
He was the 2008 Vice President of the American Association of Justice’s Professional Negligence Section (2007 Treasurer, and 2006 Newsletter Editor). He is a member of the Board of Governors for the NC Advocates for Justice, and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. He is a former Raleigh City Councilman, appointed by Mayor Tom Fetzer, serving in 1996-1997. His other memberships include: American Bar Association, NC Bar Association, Wake County Bar Association, Christian Legal Society, Susie Sharp Inn of Court, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Stacy has a Peer Review Rating of AV® Preeminent™.
He has served on the boards of Building Together Ministries, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a committee for Oak Ranch in Sanford, NC. He often gets asked to speak to groups of students and he volunteers his time judging law student competitions at Campbell and NC Central State University.
Stacy enjoys the simple things in life, like campfires and telling stories, hunting and fishing (especially with his nephew), horseback riding, cycling (view the WRAL panelists discussion on cyclists and motorists sharing the roadways featuring Stacy), and strumming a guitar. He is a huge U2 fan. He and his wife Carole, live in Raleigh, and both share a love for traveling in the Western United States.
Kenneth R. Murphy, III
Ken came to the firm as an associate in 2004. Ken began his practice in 1999 with a firm in Durham, North Carolina, where he primarily defended medical malpractice claims brought against doctors and hospitals, as well as professional negligence claims brought against architects and construction engineers. Ken also spent two years serving as a law clerk to a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Since coming to the firm in 2004, Ken has represented persons injured through the negligence of others in automobile accident, medical malpractice, and premises liability cases. Ken also regularly counsels clients on basic estate planning and estate administration issues and routinely drafts wills, general powers of attorney, health care powers of attorney, and "living wills" for individuals and families.
Ken was born in Charlotte and grew up in Greensboro, upstate South Carolina, and Texas. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ken taught middle school social studies in Kinston, North Carolina, where he also coached basketball, football, and baseball. Ken then returned to Chapel Hill to earn his law degree, where he served as a student assistant with the UNC-CH School of Law's Legal Research and Writing program and received the Gressman-Pollitt Award for excellence in oral advocacy.
Ken and his wife, Laurie, live in Raleigh and have two children. In addition to spending time with his family, Ken enjoys running, basketball, reading, and teaching his young sons to cheer for the Tar Heels. For the past six years, Ken has participated in a church-based tutoring program that works to improve the reading skills of young children in a local community.
