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Harold Franklin, a partner in King & Spalding’s Trial and Global Disputes Practice, specializes in defending corporations in complex and high-stakes product liability litigation. A member of the firm’s nationally ranked Automotive and Transportation Pharmaceutical/Medical Device teams, Harold’s national litigation and trial practice focuses heavily on high stakes individual and mass tort (MDL and Class-Actions) product liability litigation in the automotive, life sciences, and consumer products industries. His practice has also included high-exposure business disputes and internal investigations. Harold has represented many of the world’s largest corporations in complex “bet-the-company” litigation and trials. Harold is recognized nationally for his profile as a litigator and is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), comprised of the world’s leading product manufacturers and the top product liability defense counsel.
His six most recent trials include a high-profile federal court automotive product liability trial, which was selected and featured in 2014 by the Daily Report’s “Litigation Department of the Year” award publication.
Harold has also served as in-house counsel (through secondment) for a global product manufacturer, where he was responsible for selecting and retaining outside counsel and managing complex product liability litigation throughout the United States. More recently, Harold was selected by one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers to serve as one of its national written discovery counsel and also as trial counsel (along with three other trial counsel with other law firms) of a high-profile bellwether automotive product liability case.
Harold is a 1990 graduate of Emory University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Spanish. Prior to entering the legal profession, he served as vice president of an insurance brokerage firm specializing in group benefit plans for many of the nation’s leading insurance companies. Harold received his Juris Doctor from the Georgia State University School of Law in 1999. During law school, he served as a Student Judicial Clerk to the Supreme Court of Georgia. While in law school, Harold received numerous awards in local, regional, and national trial and appellate competitions.
A recognized civic leader, Harald has engaged heavily in and led pro bono and community service endeavors in both the legal profession and broader community throughout his career and he has served on numerous national and local boards. Harold is a past president of the Gate City Bar Association, Georgia’s oldest historically African-American bar association, and more recently served as president of Atlanta Bar Association, the largest voluntary bar association in the Southeast United States.
With almost two decades of extensive involvement and key leadership roles in external and internal Diversity and Inclusion initiatives in the legal industry, Harold serves as King & Spalding’s Diversity Chair. In addition to chairing the firm’s Diversity Committee, Harold leads the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion (“D&I”) leadership team and drives the firm’s internal and external D&I programs and initiatives.
Harold serves on the national Executive Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (“LCCRUL”) and as Regional Vice Chair for the organization. He is the Chair of Georgia Election Protection (through the LCCRUL), a non-partisan, pro bono initiative to help ensure the integrity of the electoral process and fair elections. He serves as Board Chair for the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and recently completed his term as Board Chair for the Truancy Intervention Project.
In 2009, Harold was selected by the Georgia United States Congressional Delegation to serve on a 13 member Federal Judicial Advisory panel to the delegation regarding Presidential appointments to selected judgeships on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Attorneys, and U.S. Marshals in Georgia. Harold was recently nominated and appointed by the federal judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to a three-year term on the Court’s 15 member Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel.
Harold has lectured locally and nationally on both legal and pro bono related topics ranging from evidentiary issues involving product liability law, to deposition strategy/best practices, to Voting Rights and Non-Partisan Election Protection initiatives, to Ethics in the legal profession. Keynote speaking engagements include: 2008 Bench and Bar Keynote Speaker at the Georgia State University College of Law; 2009 Election Protection Keynote Speaker at 25th Anniversary of the World Conference of Mayors; and 2009 Law Day Keynote Speaker (A Legacy of Liberty - Celebrating Lincoln’s Bicentennial) at the Georgia State University College of Law.
Harold has been named as a Georgia Super Lawyer (2008-present) by Law & Politics and Atlanta Magazine, as a Legal Elite by Georgia Trend Magazine, recognized by the Daily Report in 2007 as 1 of the Top 15 Lawyers in Georgia under the age of 40, and in 2016 by the Daily Report as a Georgia Attorney of the Year Finalist and he has been recognized by Legal 500 USA (Mass Tort Defense) for his national profile as a litigator and leading practitioner in his field. In 2020, Harold was honored by the Atlanta Business Chronicle with the Outstanding Voice for Diversity & Inclusion Award. In addition, Harold has been recognized consistently (2018 – present) by Best Lawyers in America as a leading practitioner in his field. In 2020, Harold was honored by the Daily Report with its Professional Excellence Award and was also honored as a Georgia Trailblazer.
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