Southern Company announced today that Jim Miller and Chris Miller each have been named vice president and associate general counsel. Jim Miller also will serve as vice president and general counsel to Southern Generation and Energy Marketing as well as Southern Power Company. Chris Miller also will serve as the company’s vice president of employee relations.

“We believe these additions will allow us to continue maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of legal counsel to Southern Company,” said Ed Holland, executive vice president and general counsel for Southern Company.

Jim Miller most recently served as Southern Company’s Birmingham division senior vice president. In his new role, he will provide legal counsel for Southern Generation and Southern Power. He also will manage Southern Company’s corporate commercial transactions and serve as the liaison between the general counsel’s office and Southern Nuclear.

Chris Miller, who most recently served as labor relations director, will now lead all of Southern Company’s strategic planning for labor relations and negotiations. He also will have responsibility for the company’s equal employment opportunity function. As associate general counsel, he will be responsible for labor and employment issues affecting Southern Company.

Jim Miller joined Southern Company in 1994 as vice president and corporate counsel for Southern Nuclear. He was named senior vice president of external affairs for Alabama Power in 1998 and senior vice president of the company’s Birmingham Division in 1999. Prior to joining Southern Company, Jim was a partner of the Balch & Bingham law firm, where his practiced encompassed public-utility law, with heavy emphasis on the nuclear-energy industry.

He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Alabama in 1971 and 1977, respectively. He is a graduate of the Nuclear Reactor Technology Course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Wharton’s Executive Accounting and Financing Program. He is currently completing the Advanced Management Program at the University of Oxford, England. Jim is listed in Who’s Who in American Law.

Chris Miller has been with the Southern Company as director of labor relations since 1999. He was previously a partner in the law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP, where he served as chief labor counsel for Southern Company and Mirant Corp. (formerly Southern Energy), and represented many other energy companies.

Chris received both his undergraduate degree and his law degree from Syracuse University in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He received a master’s in 1986 in economics and a doctorate in 1991 in human resources management from Syracuse University. He has published extensively in legal and human resources management journals, and has served as a management consultant to many Fortune 100 companies.

There is no relation between Jim Miller and Chris Miller.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a super-regional energy company with more than 32,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Southeast. It is one of the largest producers of electricity in the U.S. Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power, Savannah Electric, Southern Nuclear, Southern Company Energy Solutions, Southern LINC and Southern Telecom. Southern Company also owns a growing competitive generation business in the Southeast. Southern Company brands are synonymous with excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are 15 percent below the national average. With more than 500,000 shareholders, Southern Company common stock is one of the most widely held stocks in the United States