Franklin D. Rosenblatt
Office Information
Frank is a member of Butler Snow’s litigation department and practices within the Commercial Litigation group. A skilled litigator, Frank has tried dozens of cases to verdict, including a successful outcome in America’s most publicized trial of 2017. Frank has won national recognition for his legal writing, authored book chapters and co-authored two books, and been invited to speak about litigation and internal investigations to several of the world’s flagship institutions, including Yale Law School, The Hoover Institution, The Pentagon, and The Peace Palace in The Hague. Frank is the team leader of the Firm’s Military and National Security Law practice area.
Biography – View PDF Bio
- Associations
- Bar Admissions
- Civic Involvement
- Distinctions
- Education & Honors
- Experience
- In the News
- Papers, Presentations, & Publications
- Recent Blogs
Bar Admissions
- Colorado, 2006
- District of Columbia, 2018
- Mississippi, 2020
- U.S. District Courts
- District of Columbia
- Mississippi: Northern, Southern
- California: Central (pro hac vice)
- U.S. Court of Appeals
- Armed Forces
- District of Columbia Circuit
- Federal Circuit
- 5th Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- U.S. Court of International Trade
- U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals
Civic Involvement
- University of Chicago-Kent Center for National Security and Human Rights Law, Advisory Director
- Former Eagle Scout and Sunday School Teacher
Distinctions
- Court of Appeals Judge, Mississippi Army National Guard
- Selected as an international expert member of the Shadow Advisory Report Group of Experts (SARGE), which recently issued a report and recommendations on a military justice pilot study pursuant to § 540F of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
- Guest Lecturer at University of Virginia School of Law, Yale Law School, University of Illinois School of Law, Mississippi College School of Law
- Honorable Mention for the 2011 Kevin J. Barry national legal writing award
- Association of the United States Army award for outstanding leadership, 2007
- Military awards include the Legion of Merit, two awards of the Bronze Star, Combat Action Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Air Assault Badge and military parachutist badges of the United States, Japan, and Thailand
Education & Honors
- The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, LL.M., 2010
- University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 2006
- Co-Founder and Editor, Virginia Law and Business Review
- James Madison University, B.A., Philosophy and Religion, magna cum laude, with distinction, 1998
- Phi Kappa Phi award for best honors thesis in University
- Army ROTC Distinguished Military Graduate
- Intern to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran
- Clerkship, Honorable Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2018-2020
Experience
- Counsel for a variety of civil, administrative, and white collar criminal matters, several of which garnered national media attention.
- Secured a total exoneration for a client who was wrongly titled by NCIS for serious criminal offenses. Many other leading national lawyers advise prospective clients that such cases are nearly impossible to win.
- Negotiated early favorable outcomes for clients in several high stakes disputes.
- Pro bono counsel for a Mississippi inmate who was sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole for acts committed as a juvenile.
- Former Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army JAG Corps. Consistently selected for promotion, advanced schooling, and positions of increased responsibility.
- Lead military defense counsel for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in the most publicized court-martial in American history. Achieved a sentence of no jailtime after prosecutors asked for 14 years and the President of the United States called for the death penalty.
- Second in charge of 140 Army criminal defense attorneys worldwide.
- Represented the U.S. government in over 100 administrative hearings, claims disputes, and internal investigations.
- Lead lawyer in negotiations between the U.S. military and our interagency counterparts and the government of the Philippines over the Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines mission. More...
- Favorably featured on CNN for successfully prosecuting four terrorism suspects in the local court system in Kirkuk, Iraq.
- Prosecuted 30 felony cases at court-martial, including international crimes, financial crimes, and violent crimes including sex crimes.
- Military service in four Army combat divisions and two special operations units.
In the News
- Franklin D. Rosenblatt to Present to Military Commissions Defense Organization
- Franklin D. Rosenblatt Co-Authors Law School Textbook
- Franklin D. Rosenblatt Joins Butler Snow’s Ridgeland, Miss. Office
- Defending Bowe Bergdahl - University of Virginia School of Law
- Frank Rosenblatt returns to Iraq as a lawyer - and a new father - CNN
Papers, Presentations, & Publications
- Co-Author, Military Justice: Cases and Materials, Carolina Academic Press, 3d ed. 2020.
- Co-Author, Military Court Rules of the United States: Procedure, Citation, Professional Responsibility, Civility, and Judicial Conduct, LexisNexis, 5th ed. 2019.
- Numerous book chapters, law review articles, and short articles on litigation and internal investigations.
- Panel Moderator, “Summary Discipline,” Aix-en-Provence, France, 2021 (forthcoming).
- Speaker, “A Defense Perspective on Media Considerations in High-Profile Trials,” Joint Capital and Complex Defenders Course, Washington D.C., 2021 (forthcoming).
- Guest Speaker, U.S. Air Force JAG Office, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, December 2020.
- Guest Speaker, U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, October 2020.
- Presenter, Military Commissions Defense Organization, July 29, 2020.
- Guest Speaker, Mississippi and Louisiana Army National Guard JAG Annual CLE, 2020. More...
- Speaker, “A Defense Perspective on Litigating Cases Involving Classified Information,” U.S. Navy Classified Litigation Division, Washington D.C., 2018 and 2019.
- Expert Participant, “Yale Expert Workshop on Draft Principles for Military Summary Proceedings,” Yale Law School, 2019.
- Nuremberg Principles Academy’s Summer Program for Young Professionals. First-ever American selected to attend fully-funded two-week course on litigation in international tribunals. Only 24 invitees from among 500 global applicants. Nuremberg, Germany, 2018.
- Guest Lecturer, “Prosecuting War Crimes,” The Lieber Institute’s Inaugural Military Operations Course, United States Military Academy (West Point), 2018.
- Speaker, “Unlawful Influence in Criminal Trials,” Lisbon, Portugal, 2018.
- Special Guest Lecture, “Duties to Clients in Criminal Cases,” Wheaton College, 2018.
- Expert Witness, Colorado v. Fraser. Qualified and testified for the defense as an expert witness on independence and impartiality of tribunals, 2018.
- Expert Participant, “Workshop on the UN Draft Principles Governing the Administration of Justice Through Military Tribunals.” Joined a small group of international experts to draft the update to the UN Human Rights Committee’s Decaux Principles. Yale Law School, 2018.
- Speaker and Panel Moderator, “Tribunalization,” Indian Progressive Lawyer’s Forum, Chandigarh, India, 2017.
- Guest Lecture, “Limits of Self-Investigation,” Forum for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law, Peace Palace (The Hague), 2017.
- Speaker, “Current Issues in National Security Law,” Prague, Czech Republic, 2015.
- Guest Lecture, “Diagnosing Flawed Investigations,” The Pentagon, 2013.
- Expert Participant, “The Self-Interest of Armed Forces in Accountability for their Members for Core International Crimes: An International Expert Symposium,” Hoover Institution of Stanford University in conjunction with the Forum for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law, 2012.
- Speaker, “Non-Deployable: The Court-Martial System in Combat from 2001 to 2009,” Creighton Law Review Symposium, Omaha, 2011.