Terrence Franklin is a founding partner at downtown-based Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer, where he works in trusts and estates litigation.<\/p>\n
With more than three decades of practice, Franklin works with high-net-worth individuals, charitable organizations, educational institutions and a wide variety of businesses and companies. One of his signature achievements is uncovering a family will from 1846 which liberated his ancestors from slavery, a subject that has become a seminar that he frequently presents.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Business Journal, Franklin speaks to why he was drawn to trusts and estates litigation and how he uses his career to advance the causes he champions.<\/p>\n
What sparked your interest in a legal career and how did you land on trusts and estates?
I\u00a0grew up on the South Side of Chicago, the first in our line to go to college.\u00a0Teachers told me I had a lot of potential, and I was determined to do something good and important in my life.\u00a0But the only professions that I could imagine were \u201cdoctor, lawyer, professor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Math isn\u2019t a strong suit, so\u00a0I set my sights on becoming a lawyer, whatever that might mean.<\/p>\n
When I started practicing at BigLaw (Morrison & Foerster) after Harvard Law School, I only expected to do general litigation.\u00a0But when a partner and senior associate (Bob Sacks, who is still my law partner today) left the BigLaw firm to start a trust and estate litigation practice, the idea of specializing intrigued me.\u00a0Otherwise, there wasn\u2019t anything that naturally drew or connected me to trusts and estates.\u00a0Most people I knew didn\u2019t have trust funds supporting them, so this was all new to me.<\/p>\n
It took decades before I came to learn of a will contest in my own family in 1846-1847, where my ancestors\u2019 freedom was at stake.\u00a0So now, looking back, I know that trusts and estates litigation was my destiny.<\/p>\n
Why Los Angeles for your career?
In law school, I had fallen in love with a classmate who was from Los Angeles.\u00a0We spent the two summers before graduating trying out my hometown of Chicago and her hometown of Los Angeles.\u00a0We both had better prospects for work in Los Angeles, where we raised our two now adult daughters.\u00a0I\u2019ve lived in Los Angeles much longer than I\u2019ve lived anywhere else and I have been happy to build my career and community here.\u00a0My former wife and I are still friends and both still practicing law, though we split up years ago and have each found new spouses.<\/p>\n
How has your current firm enhanced your career trajectory?
I co-founded Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise (now Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer) in 2001.\u00a0My career has significantly grown and expanded since then. Working with really bright, caring, effective colleagues in a supportive environment, has allowed me to grow my own practice, and at the same time, given me a platform to develop the practice area of trusts and estates. I get to use that platform to also encourage more people of color, and Black lawyers in particular, to consider trusts and estates as a practice area, and I also use the platform to encourage non-lawyers to be sure to get their estate planning done.\u00a0Being in the supportive firm has also allowed me to pursue my personal mission to \u201cBend the Arc of History Towards Justice\u201d by sharing the story of my ancestors\u2019 escape from slavery on various platforms, (for example) a TEDx Talk, podcasts, articles and other creative projects.<\/p>\n
Tell me about your first trial win.
My first trial win dates back to a mini arbitration.\u00a0My BigLaw firm represented a company that had been sued for sexual discrimination by nearly 1,000 women.\u00a0The federal district court handling the case determined that the most efficient way to handle all of these disparate cases, was to conduct individual arbitrations after focused discovery, because the class members had to establish very specific legal requirements in terms of the timing of their claims, and independent corroboration of the facts.\u00a0I think I was still a second-year associate.\u00a0I was so nervous, but I got the opportunity to prepare and examine witnesses in an important case, but in a relatively low stakes environment.\u00a0I was thrilled when the arbitrator issued her decision in our favor, that the claimant had not satisfied the specific requirements for winning relief.\u00a0I felt grateful that the firm gave me this experience as a young associate.<\/p>\n
Which trial victory are you most proud of and why?
My experience affirms the adage that the cases that go to trial are the ones in which one side or the other has miscalculated the case\u2019s value.\u00a0So, one of my proudest victories was going to trial in a case involving our client, the trustee of his wife\u2019s family\u2019s trust.\u00a0His sister-in-law, a beneficiary, didn\u2019t think our client could do anything right.\u00a0Despite our attempts to dissuade the sister-in-law and her attorney from going to trial, they insisted.\u00a0As the trial began, the probate judge suggested the other side give serious thought to settling the case \u2013 which we did, in a great victory for my client.<\/p>\n
How have you and your team incorporated artificial intelligence into your practices and work?
We are excited about the new technology and beginning to experiment, but we are trying to be prudent. Headlines about courts sanctioning law firms for relying on AI-generated briefs without adequate review, along with concerns that certain AI tools may implicate attorney-client privilege or work product protections, have reinforced the importance of maintaining the professionalism and high ethical standards that define our practice. <\/p>\n
As we begin using these tools, we have reviewed policies adopted by peer firms and guidance issued by bar associations and professional organizations, like the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, so we can implement plans to make sure that our clients benefit from the speed and efficiency of AI, without falling into ethical traps.<\/p>\n
Does the growth of so-called \u201cnuclear verdicts\u201d and their damage awards concern you?
\u201cNuclear verdicts\u201d don\u2019t affect our practice in the trust and estate field very much.\u00a0Generally, the matters handled in the Probate Court don\u2019t include the right to a jury, even though the Probate Court is a court of general jurisdiction.\u00a0Since judges try our cases, we don\u2019t get nuclear jury verdicts.\u00a0The only type of cases we see that might involve a jury are conservatorship matters, since the court can\u2019t take away someone\u2019s liberty interests without a right to a jury.\u00a0But I don\u2019t see many conservatorship cases go to trial, and almost never with a jury.<\/p>\n
Do you foresee trusts and estates law having growth potential as families grow older and more complicated?
I don\u2019t think trusts and estates will ever go away as long as people die and are leaving money behind.\u00a0It seems there is still a huge potential for growth in the practice area. As Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation age and pass away, it is estimated that between $84 trillion and $124 trillion will change hands over the next two decades.\u00a0With that volume, there are sure to be disputes, and the complexity of the disputes will likely grow proportionately by volume.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the same time, I imagine technologies that make it easier to create fakes of documents, and even people, will present a continuing challenge for the probate laws and the rules of evidence to keep up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terrence Franklin is a founding partner at downtown-based Sacks, Glazier, Franklin, Lodise, McMurtrey & Scheerer, where he works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[136743,153310,48,52,51,153311,47,50,49,153312,153309],"class_list":["post-379012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-franklin","tag-glazier","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lodise","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mcmurtrey-scheerer","tag-sacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}