WASHINGTON —

President Bush once called Harriet Miers a "pit bull in size 6 shoes," but longtime friends say the description may be a bit imprecise.

To those who have watched her rise from a goal-oriented law student at Dallas' Southern Methodist University to a trusted presidential confidante, Bush's latest Supreme Court nominee can be more aptly described as a tenacious but soft-spoken achiever who prefers negotiation to confrontation.

As a corporate attorney in Dallas, where she once served as the president's private lawyer, she trampled gender barriers by becoming the first woman to head her law firm and the first woman president of the local and state bar associations.

Miers later served on the Dallas City Council in her only elective office, teamed with Bush from the outset of his political career as Texas governor, and later was credited with cleaning up a troubled state agency. For the past five years, she has been at the president's side as staff secretary, deputy chief of staff and White House counsel.

Past and current associates describe her as a smart, pragmatic consensus builder and — for the past decade — extremely loyal to her boss. Conversely, she also has been criticized for sometimes allowing herself to get consumed by detail.

Born and raised in Dallas, Miers graduated from SMU with a math degree in 1967, a year ahead of future first lady Laura Bush. The class yearbook lists her as treasurer of the Mortar Board, an academic society; manager of the women's intramurals program; president of the campus chapter of the YWCA; and manager of an organization called the Town Girls Association.

She then attended SMU's law school in a class that was nearly 90 percent male. She earned her law degree in 1970 and then clerked for U.S. District Judge Joe Estes. She also spent one summer working for plaintiff's lawyer Melvin Belli in San Francisco.

Alan Bromberg, one of Miers' law professors at SMU, remembers her as "a very quiet, very thoughtful, very good student" who made top marks but wasn't a class leader. "She was not the type of student who volunteered a lot of information, but if you asked a critical question, you got a solid, intelligent answer."

Growing up in North Dallas, Miers was known among younger children as a mentor in her teenage years, often accompanying neighborhood youngsters on outings. While Miers was in her freshman year at SMU, she went to work to pay for her education after an illness in the family.

After graduating, she was the first woman hired by Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, a Dallas firm whose history extends to the 1890s. She went on to become a top commercial litigator whose clients included Microsoft and the Walt Disney Co.

She became the first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association and the first woman president of the State Bar Association in 1991, winning election over a prominent male attorney in Houston by reaching out to women and minority lawyers.

In 1996, she was elected president of Locke Purnell. The firm later merged with a Houston firm, becoming Locke Liddell & Sapp, and Miers became co-manager, overseeing a team of more than 400 lawyers.

As state bar president, she led the fight to provide legal services to the poor in civil cases while also cracking down on attorneys commonly known as "ambulance chasers," fellow attorneys recalled.

While the state bar had struggled for years with legal help for the poor, Miers "put some teeth into it" and helped make sure the state had a permanent committee dedicated to that goal, said David Keltner, a Fort Worth attorney and former state bar chairman.

"She got people in the ivory towers to come down and talk to people who didn't take a shower every day, and that is darned impressive," Keltner said. "You could put her into a room full of truckers and she'd be comfortable and they, in the end, would like her."

Gayle Rosenstein, who worked with Miers at Locke Liddell when Miers was the managing partner, said Bush's Supreme Court pick was widely regarded as a role model for women attorneys struggling to join and advance in big Texas law firms.

"Texas firms had a lot of the good ol' boy attitude, and she was one of the leaders in breaking down those barriers," said Rosenstein, showing "that you can be a successful attorney and be a female without having to conform to the good ol' boy ways."

Miers also was a big supporter of faith-based organizations, an issue close to the heart of the Bush administration and one that may come before the high court.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Miers served on the Exodus Ministry's board of directors in East Dallas. The nonprofit group operates a 20-unit apartment complex east of downtown Dallas that serves as transitional housing for ex-offenders.

Miers won election to the Dallas City Council in 1989, serving as an at-large member on the nonpartisan body. During the two-year term, she supported a redistricting plan that assured minority representation on the council, several Dallas lawyers said.

Dallas City Councilman Ron Natinsky, who went to Hillcrest High School with Miers, described her as "a behind-the-scenes, quiet, get-the-job-done kind of person. She was not out seeking glory, even when she was getting things done."

Miers was active in behind-the-scenes Republican politics and became counsel to Bush's transition team after he won election as governor in 1994. Bush, a resident of Dallas while he was general managing partner of the Texas Rangers, also relied on Miers for personal legal business, including a title dispute over a fishing house in East Texas.

Miers served five tumultuous years on the Texas Lottery Commission, an agency that was beset by leadership changes and ebbing public support. She served on the three-member panel from 1995 to 2001.

Appointed by then-Gov. Bush to be commission chairwoman, she joined the lottery when it was 3 years old. The commission came under siege when allegations surfaced that its first executive director, Nora Linares, was instrumental in securing for a friend a five-month, $30,000 position with a private company that ran the lottery. Miers also raised questions about 182 files missing from the commission headquarters. Linares was fired in 1997.

After Linares, the lottery quickly went through two executive directors, including one who resigned saying the games were "ripping off" players. Later, the commission also came under fire when the Legislature cut the percentage of lottery ticket sales that went to prizes and reduced the advertising budget.

Lottery Commissioner C. Thomas Clowe praised Miers' work with the commission, saying that she "did a great job, was even-handed and well-balanced in handling that difficult situation." Clowe has been on the commission since 1998 and succeeded Miers as chairman.

But Buck Wood, the attorney who represented Linares, said his client's dismissal was politically motivated — she was appointed by former Democratic Comptroller John Sharp.

Linares settled out of court a wrongful-termination lawsuit that included a letter from the state saying that Linares had done nothing wrong, he said.

"She [Miers] is not a very likable person. She's a Republican and a partisan one, and she's not a very easy person to deal with," Wood said. "She's a 'my way or the highway' kind of person. She will drive [Chief Justice] John Roberts nuts."

Miers, who is single, maintains close ties with her mother and two brothers in Dallas and a third brother in Houston. She has described her mother as her greatest inspiration. At yesterday's Oval Office announcement alongside the president, Miers concluded her acceptance of the nomination by reading a note "for my mom."

"Thank you for your faith, your strength, your courage and beauty of spirit," Miers said.

Montgomery and Baker report for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.