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In Memoriam: Franklin Jones, Jr.

By Michael Smith

pa href=http://mcsmith.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451ccc469e20105368b99fe970b-pi style=float: left;img alt=FJ Jr flag (Large) class=at-xid-6a00d83451ccc469e20105368b99fe970b src=http://mcsmith.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451ccc469e20105368b99fe970b-200wi style=margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; width: 200px; //a The flag in front of the federal courthouse in Marshall is flying at half staff today in advance of this morning#39;s funeral services for Marshall lawyer Franklin Jones, Jr. (for full obituary, click a href=http://www.legacy.com/MarshallNewsMessenger/Obituaries.asp?Page=SearchResultsamp;DateRange=AdHocamp;StartDate=12/21/2008amp;EndDate=12/21/2008here/a).#0160; Franklin was the third generation of his family to practice law in Marshall, following his father Franklin, Sr., and his grandfather Sol Jones, who founded the Jones firm back in the late 19th century.br /Franklin#39;s accomplishments in his 54 year law career were many - just to name a few that mean something to me he served as the 100th president of the State Bar of Texas, was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and received the Marshall Chamber of Commerce#39;s Citizen of the Year Award in 2002, and chaired the Courthouse Preservation Council of Harrison County for the past 14 years.#0160; One of my lasting achievements in community service in my hometown will be that I was one of the committee that drafted Franklin to take the job, because he was the only person in the community that we could think of that could chair something that big.#0160; (Franklin often joked in recent years that he was only sticking around to see the courthouse completed, so the delays didn#39;t bother him that much.#0160; He became increasingly concerned when it became clear that the building would be completed in the first months of 2009.#0160; He very nearly made the grand reopening for the building where he, his father, and his grandfather tried many cases before it was replaced with a new courthouse in 1964). br /I was fortunate to be able to work for Franklin at what#39;s referred to locally as the quot;old firmquot;, which was Jones, Jones, Baldwin, Curry and Roth when I worked there as summer help in 1985 and 1986, and again as a law clerk in the fall of 1991 (actually Franklin#39;s cousin Scotty Baldwin left the firm in 1986 to start Baldwin amp; Baldwin, so by then it was JJCR).#0160; The first trial I ever saw was when I went to Palestine for a week to help Franklin and Mike Miller when they tried Jerry Riggs#39; FELA case in Palestine, Texas (before the Honorable Bascom Bentley III - now that#39;s a judge#39;s name).#0160; I later saw Franklin try FELA cases in Judge Sam B. Hall, Jr.#39;s court in Marshall as Judge Hall#39;s law clerk.#0160; (Franklin was also nice enough to let me take a date out in his Mercedes while I was a starving college student - at least that#39;s my story.#0160; What actually happened was that I took his car to get it washed and because it would be late getting back he told me to take it home and bring it to the office the next morning.#0160; I cannot recall with any certainty at this time whether he in fact knew that I would be scheduling the car for a date that evening while I had it.#0160; But I guess he knows now).br /One the best experiences I had early as a lawyer (actually as a law clerk for Franklin) was due to Franklin, even though he wasn#39;t there.#0160; I was attending a deposition of the orthopod in the Riggs case in Shreveport with Franklin.#0160; The defense lawyer was from Tyler and he and Franklin locked horns repeatedly during the deposition.#0160; But as soon as it was over Franklin asked him if he#39;d drop me off back in Marshall on the way back to Tyler - Franklin was headed to Caddo, and Marshall was out of the way.#0160; My jaw about dropped - I didn#39;t know that#39;s how quot;realquot; lawyers behaved.#0160; I thought they told each other to go to hell and wouldn#39;t, uh, pour water on each other if they were on fire (remember this was back when emL.A. Law/em was the benchmark for how lawyers behaved).#0160; The other lawyer (whose name I am sorry to say I#39;ve forgotten) said of course and took me and the court reporter out to dinner before heading back.#0160; Since then I#39;ve learned that it is customary for lawyers out our way to ride with each other to and from depositions (Judge Ward has remarked on this recently at status conferences, and no, he wasn#39;t making it up, as many of the lawyers at the hearing were assuming), and that little (and big) courtesies like this are standard.#0160; I#39;ve ridden to Dallas with an opposing lawyer for a mediation, then detoured to Greenville on the way back to drop him at his daughter#39;s volleyball game, and driven his truck back to Longview for him.#0160; That#39;s the kind of relationship that the legal community out our way has had for generations, and Franklin was a good example of it.#0160; Judge Ward alluded to this in his eulogy to Franklin this morning, pointing out that Franklin whipped him in the courtroom not long after he#39;d started practicing law - the first of many, he said - and that he was usually on the opposite side of Franklin in cases.#0160; But when it came time for Franklin to ask someone to say a few words at his service, he chose his old adversary.#0160; But, Judge Ward noted, he made quite clear that the remarks were to be brief, and as Judge Ward said that as he was unclear just exactly what Franklin#39;s contempt powers might be in his current condition, he decided to comply. br /I know I saw Franklin a number of times in recent months working on the courthouse committee and at the courthouse before hearings, but the last time I can remember that we sat down and talked at length was when I went over to pay my courtesy call in January to let him know I#39;d changed firms.#0160; We talked State Bar gossip (I was in my last year on the bar board - he#39;d been on the board in the late 1960#39;s and president ten years after that) and local politics and had a really nice visit.#0160; Like many others, I know I#39;ll miss those visits, and the chance to bend his ear for some advice when I need it. /p

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).