Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Fall 2018, Vol. 44, No. 3 | Page 5

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Interview with Gary Franklin
Teri Corsones: Today is September 5,
2018, and I’m speaking with Vermont Bar
Association Board President, Gary Frank-
lin. Gary, on behalf of Vermont Bar Journal
readers everywhere, thank you for taking
the time to visit with me today.
Gary Franklin: It’s my pleasure.
TC: First, can you tell us a bit about
your background, where you grew up, and
where you went to school.
GF: Sure. I grew up on the mean streets
of New York City. My parents were pio-
neers of the Upper West Side in the early
1960’s, and they purchased a brownstone
on a block that had a number of vacant lots
and uninhabited buildings. I went to a pri-
vate high school on the Upper East Side,
where some of my friends weren’t allowed
to come over to my house because the
neighborhood was too dangerous. Ironi-
cally, many of those friends now live on the
Upper West Side. Eventually I went to col-
lege in Boston and law school in San Fran-
cisco, where I lived for six years.
TC: Your parents were quite the vision-
aries! What led you to consider law school
as a path?
GF: Basically, as a child, I argued with my
mother a lot at the dinner table, so it was
kind of a natural progression.
TC: That’s probably the start of most le-
gal careers. After living and working in San
Francisco, how did you end up in Vermont?
GF: So, that was sort of a longer path.
My wife, whom I met out in California, wa s
from upstate New York and we decided to
return East so she could attend business
school at NYU. However, after having lived
in California for a number of years, I’d bro-
ken the mold of being a NYC kid. After 5
years in New York we decided to downsize.
We picked Vermont as the place to raise a
family.
TC: Had you had any prior connections
with Vermont?
GF Only as the backyard playground for
the Northeast.
TC: So, you’d been here skiing or hiking
or things like that?
GF: Yes, we vacationed here a number of
times, and at some point, determined that
it would be far better to live here and visit
the city rather than the other way around.
TC: I think a lot of our members reached
www.vtbar.org
the same conclusion! Where did you first
work when you came to Vermont to live?
GF: When I first came to Vermont, I
worked at a small firm of about 10 attor-
neys in Burlington, called Miller, Eggleston
& Cramer. That firm then became Egg-
leston & Cramer, when Marty Miller left
to become the CEO of Velco. Then Egg-
leston & Cramer merged with Primmer Pip-
er, when we doubled in size. Primmer Pip-
er Eggleston & Cramer has continued to
grow to the point where it’s doubled in size
again, and has become a regional firm. It’s
been a good ride.
TC: What year did you start working in
Vermont?
GF: 1999.
TC: Did you have the benefit of a mentor
when you were first starting out?
GF: I did. Marty Miller, who hired me, was
a terrific mentor for the couple/few years
that we crossed paths before he left. Mar-
ty had been in the Burlington community
for a long time and was well connected.
He was also a real innovative thinker. Scot
Kline, who is now Judge Scot Kline, was my
direct superior at Eggleston & Cramer. He
was also a tremendous mentor, and a very
thoughtful, thorough and measured attor-
ney. It’s no surprise to me that he became
a judge - he would regularly strike any ad-
jectives from my writing to tone it down. I’ll
have to remember that when I eventually
appear before him.
TC: We all will! Did you have a specific
area of law that you focused on from the
beginning?
GF: Civil litigation has always been my
focus and more specifically in the commer-
cial and business world. That can cover a
fairly broad segment of cases from land use
and development, through real estate, em-
ployment and intellectual property types.
It involves a lot of contract law. I’ve nev-
er practiced in the areas of personal inju-
ry or family law or criminal law, so in some
ways it’s easier to describe what I don’t do.
Over time, the cases have sort of increased
in size and complexity and value, so there’s
been an evolution in the work, but the gen-
eral focus has always been commercial and
business litigation.
TC: What do you find most interesting
about your work?
GF: Well, the people I work with. There
have been a lot of very bright, energetic
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • FALL 2018
clients, who’ve been terrific partners in my
cases. I learn a tremendous amount from
them, and I enjoy just expanding the net-
work of people I’ve gotten to know. The
cases range from one industry to another,
and becoming well-versed in something
that I really didn’t know much about before
keeps me engaged. The cases are definite-
ly not run of the mill and are rarely repeti-
tive, so I’m constantly learning and having
my clients teach me new and interesting
things.
TC: So that might be the answer to my
next question. I was going to ask what you
find most challenging about your work.
GF: Yes, the challenge is always having
to come up to speed on areas of law or dif-
ferent industries that are new to me. I like
to think that I have an expertise in the pro-
cess, in how to navigate through a very se-
rious dispute. The subject matter of the dis-
putes is often something that I really need
to learn a lot about. Every case is different.
TC: So, after having done so many dif-
ferent types of cases where you learned
about so many different subjects, you must
be great at trivia?
GF: (Laughing) I don’t know, my mind,
seems to constantly override it, so I don’t
know how much old information I retain.
TC: I know that you also regularly pre-
side in small claims court. First thank you
for providing such a tremendous service
to the courts and to the small claims court
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