Franklin is a senior vice president of State Government Relations at McGuireWoods Consulting and a partner and member of McGuireWoods LLP’s government affairs practice.

He was a senior assistant for governmental affairs to North Carolina Governor Mike Easley from 2001 to 2009. Prior to that position, he served as an Associate Justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court and as chief of staff to Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. Franklin also served as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Corrections from 1993 to 1997, and as director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of Courts from 1981 to 1993. He was an assistant district attorney and then the elected district attorney for the 17th Judicial District as well as an administrative assistant to North Carolina Chief Justices William Bobbitt (1973-1974) and Susie Sharp (1975-1978).

While earning his law degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Law, Franklin was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece and an active member of the Student Bar Association, serving as both president and treasurer. Following law school, he was a law clerk for North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Dan K. Moore. He has lectured from time to time at the University of North Carolina School of Government.

Franklin has been recognized consistently during the last decade as one of the top ten lobbyists at the North Carolina General Assembly, twice ranking fourth. He was ranked as the 27th “Most Influential Lobbyist” of the 2011-2012 Legislative Session by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research in its annual survey of legislators, lobbyists and Capitol Press Corps members.

Franklin’s experience working in the three branches of state government for over forty years helps him understand the interactions of the branches and their inter relationships. As a result, he has a keen sense of the precise contacts that need be made to successfully address a legal or administrative problem.