"Harriet is a person who is incredibly capable and hard-working and fair and honest," said Susan L. Karamanian, an associate dean at George Washington University Law School and a Democrat who was mentored by Ms. Miers as a young lawyer in her Dallas firm nearly 20 years ago.
"When I practiced with Harriet, I never once heard her make a serious negative comment about anyone," Ms. Karamanian said. "And now for someone who's dedicated her life to working so hard in the profession, and treating everyone so fairly, to be the object of these statements is just incomprehensible to me."
Kristen Silverberg, a former White House official who is now an assistant secretary of state, spent part of 2003 in Baghdad as an aide to L. Paul Bremer, the presidential envoy to Iraq, and recalled that "Harriet was always the first one on the phone to say, 'Is everything O.K.?' " when there was bad news.
"When the Al Rashid Hotel was bombed," Ms. Silverberg said, "the first e-mail I got was from her."
Ms. Silverberg, who was a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, said that Ms. Miers's work at the highest levels of the White House had exposed her thoroughly to the many "monumental, life-changing issues" that come before the court, and that she would be well-suited to grappling with them.
"She's very meticulous," Ms. Silverberg said. "She has a lot of humility in the way she approaches her job. It's never about Harriet. It's always about making sure that everything is perfect and that the president gets the best advice."
When Jeanette Reilly, a highly regarded research director in the White House speechwriting office, was stricken with terminal cancer in her 20's, colleagues said Ms. Miers not only made a special point of looking after her, but also drafted her will.
"Jen and Harriet had what seemed to me a special friendship," said Matthew Scully, a White House speechwriter from 2001 until last year, "and really seemed to understand and respect each other, as I thought, because they recognized the same high standard in each other. Sometimes when you're doing these speeches, you sort of think, 'This can slide, nobody is going to challenge this,' but that was not a high enough standard for Harriet."
Brett M. Kavanaugh, Ms. Miers's successor as staff secretary, said that her critics had overlooked the breadth of issues she had addressed in the White House.
"For any lawyer in the country to be called upon by the president over the course of the past five years to provide advice on a full range of subjects," Mr. Kavanaugh said, "from national security law, to the Patriot Act, to any issue that may cross his desk, is a very significant role for any lawyer to play."
Mr. Kavanaugh's own nomination for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has been stalled in the Senate for more than two years, in the face of sharp Democratic questioning over his experience and ideology.
Asked if Ms. Miers had sought his advice, he responded indirectly. "Her process will move more quickly," he said. "That's one thing that's sure."
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