W. Franklin Milam
Overview
Franklin Milam represents clients in complex litigation across financial services, real estate, commercial disputes, and product liability matters. He also brings focused experience in antitrust and competition issues, civil rights defense, creditors’ rights, and insurance defense – allowing him to guide clients through high-stakes disputes with clarity, strategy, and confidence.
Franklin previously served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee and as a prosecutor in Warren and Edmonson Counties, Kentucky. In those roles, he handled numerous bench and jury trials, giving him firsthand courtroom experience and a practical understanding of how cases are evaluated, litigated, and resolved.
Franklin takes a hands-on, full-service approach to litigation, managing cases from initial strategy through motion practice and trial. Drawing on 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including three tours of duty and ongoing service as a Reservist, he brings discipline, leadership, and calm decision-making to every matter, communicating clearly with clients, courts, and opposing counsel.
Franklin also leverages his master’s degree in economics and experience as an economist with the U.S. Department of Labor. This background enables him to analyze financial data, statistics, and damages efficiently and accurately – an advantage in cases where economic issues play a central role.
Credentials
Education
- University of Kentucky College of Law, 2020 (J.D.), cum laude
- Western Kentucky University, 2016 (M.A.), summa cum laude
- Western Kentucky University, 2015 (B.A.)
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Kentucky
- Won dismissal in a high-stakes competitor dispute by demonstrating that antitrust law forbids geographic market allocation – an outcome later affirmed on appeal.
- Successfully defended state agencies against complex constitutional claims spanning multiple amendments, protecting public institutions from significant civil rights liability.
- Secured summary judgment for a state university in claims alleging breach of contract and wrongful termination of a tenured professor.
- Achieved a jury verdict and maximum sentence against a defendant charged with smuggling illegal drugs into a correctional facility.
- Dissolved a temporary restraining order by showing the opposing party’s statutory interpretation was legally unsound and contrary to governing law.
- Crossland Community Church
- U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program
- Kentucky Bar Association
- Tennessee Bar Association