Mr. Franklin has served as counsel for a number of the country’s largest automotive, pharmaceutical, beverage, and package delivery companies. Mr. Franklin has been actively involved in a multitude of matters throughout the continental United States, in addition to Puerto Rico, Europe and South America.

Mr. Franklin is a 1990 graduate of Emory University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Spanish. Mr. Franklin has served as a Spanish interviewer and translator with both public and private sector entities, including serving as a volunteer translator with the Latin American Association in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr. Franklin received his Juris Doctor from Georgia State University School of Law in 1999. While in law school, Mr. Franklin received a host of trial and appellate awards in local, regional, and national competitions, including: Ranked 2nd place in First Year Research, Writing, and Analysis Moot Court Oral Argument Competition; Nominated “Best Oralist” in the 1997-98 Student Trial Lawyer’s Association Trial Competition; Ranked 3rd Place in 1997-98 Student Trial Lawyer’s Southeast Regional Trial Competition; Ranked 1st Place in Preliminary Rounds and National Semi-Finalist in 1999 National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition; and Ranked 2nd Place Regional Finalist in 1999 Jessup International Moot Court Competition. In addition, in law school, Mr. Franklin was a member of the Bleckley Inn of Court, a litigation honor society.

During law school, Mr. Franklin served as a Student Judicial Clerk to the Supreme Court of Georgia for current Chief Justice Leah W. Sears and also served as a judicial extern with the Federal Reserve Bank. In addition, Mr. Franklin studied international law in the 1997 Transnational Comparative Dispute Resolution Program at the law school at Johannes Keppler University in Linz, Austria.

In 2004, Mr. Franklin was selected by General Motors Corporation to serve as in-house counsel for the corporation’s product litigation group. In his role as in-house counsel (while on-loan from King & Spalding LLP), Mr. Franklin was responsible for selecting and retaining outside counsel and managing complex automotive product liability litigation.

Mr. Franklin’s recent honors include:

• As a result of being chosen by his peers throughout the state as a leading lawyer in his practice area, Mr. Franklin is listed in the 2006 issue of Georgia Trend magazine’s, Legal Elite;



• 2006 Recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award, presented by the Black Law Students’ Association at the Annual Bench and Bar Reception at the Georgia State University College of Law; and



• Elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Membership in this preeminent group of lawyers is comprised of less than 1% of the lawyers in the nation.

In addition to his active practice, Mr. Franklin has engaged in numerous pro bono and community service endeavors in his service to the community and bar, including providing pro bono legal representation to the community through the Truancy Intervention Project, which provides early positive intervention with children reported as truants, and the Dispossessory Project, an eviction defense program provided through the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. On behalf of the Gate City Bar Association, Georgia’s oldest and largest African-American bar association, Mr. Franklin planned and coordinated A Symposium Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The program featured a distinguished panel, including Congressman John Lewis, and was hosted by King & Spalding.

In addition, Mr. Franklin played a primary role in helping institute King & Spalding’s involvement in Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Mayor’s Youth Program, which provides scholarships and mentoring for underprivileged students to attend college. He also served as a mentor for the Mayor’s Youth Program student intern and has served as a guest motivational speaker with the Atlanta Bar Association summer internship program (which also provides jobs in the legal field) and as a mentor to King & Spalding’s Atlanta Bar Association summer intern. For the past two years, Mr. Franklin has served as chairman of the Scholarship Committee of the Gate City Hall of Fame program, which provides scholarships to deserving law students.

Recently, Mr. Franklin served on the Georgia chapter of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in connection with the non-partisan Election Protection coalition. He served as a spokesperson for the National Bar Association regarding Election Protection 2006 at a televised press conference and served as a panelist on two broadcast radio programs in connection with Election Protection 2006. Mr. Franklin has served on other panels, including the student speaker series program of the Center of Law, Health & Society, Public Interest Law Society at the Georgia State University College of Law.

Mr. Franklin is admitted to the Georgia Bar (1999) and is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the American Bar Foundation, the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association (Board Member), the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (Board Member), the Defense Research Institute, the Lawyers’ Club of Atlanta, and the State Bar of Georgia Diversity Program (Board Member). At King & Spalding, Mr. Franklin serves on the Hiring Committee and also the Diversity Committee. Mr. Franklin currently serves as President of the Gate City Bar Association.

Mr. Franklin and his wife, Cynthia, are the proud parents of three young children.