About David Brian
David Brian Franks built a scholarly foundation before he entered practice. He earned his undergraduate degree in history and political science from Carleton College in 1976. Two years later he studied Middle Eastern history and the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1987 he pursued courses in international trade law at Beijing University and Fudan University, a rare combination of regional history and transnational legal study for an American attorney of his generation.
His early career included military service. He held the rank of lieutenant in the United States Navy in 1980. Later listings note service as a Navy officer in the United States Naval Reserve in 1987. Those experiences came before and alongside the beginning of his work in public legal offices.
Franks moved into prosecutorial roles in Illinois. He served as an assistant state’s lawyer in the Cook County State’s Lawyer’s Office in 1990. Four years later he took a position as an assistant state’s lawyer in the McHenry County State’s Lawyer’s Office. At McHenry County he also worked as a prosecutor in both misdemeanor and felony divisions for four years, handling a broad array of state criminal matters.
He has been active in bar association work for decades. Records show membership on the Illinois State Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Council beginning in 1990, with continued involvement noted in 2007. In 2006 he served as chair of the ISBA Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council. Those roles placed him in the midst of practitioner discussions about traffic enforcement, court procedures, and criminal justice policy in Illinois.
Franks’s background mixes courtroom practice and academic inquiry. His prosecutorial experience covers misdemeanor and felony arraignments, pretrial work, and courtroom proceedings. His studies abroad, in Jerusalem and in China, exposed him to historical and legal perspectives outside the usual American curriculum. That combination has informed how he approaches cases and how he communicates about law to colleagues and clients.
He has worked in public offices rather than in a named private firm in the available records. He remains involved in criminal justice matters and traffic law issues through professional channels and bar activity. He currently practices in criminal law, handling matters that range from traffic cases to state-level criminal charges.
