Osler's Razor

On Wednesdays, I am using the blog to profile my classmates in the Yale Law class of 1990-- a pretty darn interesting group! Today we meet Sharon Bradford Franklin.

Sharon Bradford was someone I remember well from our days at law school: she was one of the few people who seemed to understand things right away, meaning that people like me counted on her to explain stuff. Sharon came to Yale Law from undergrad at Harvard, as did her husband and our classmate, Jonathon Franklin.  She was smart and capable and sometimes funny, which is a great asset in law school, especially one where people can take themselves way too seriously.

After law school, Sharon clerked for Judge Jane Roth, who was transitioning from the federal district court in Delaware to the Third Circuit (which sits in Philadelphia, where I was clerking at the District Court). Her career after that included important and fascinating tasks inside and out of the federal government.

That journey began with seven years successfully fighting housing discrimination for the DOJ. From there, she jumped over to the FCC, serving in the General Counsel's office (I'm not sure what the deal is with my class and telecommunications lawyers, but it is a thing). After three years there, she spent four more as the Executive Director of the Washington Council of Lawyers, a group focused on pro bono public interest work (I get their newsletter, and they are always up to something interesting).

That brings us to 2005, the starting point for eight years as Senior Counsel for the Constitution Project, a non-profit. There, Sharon focused on the often tenuous balance between national security and privacy rights.  Which, in turn, was a natural springboard to her next-- and very important-- post as Executive Director of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent government agency that monitors national security operations for infringements on rights. Talk about being on the front lines of an important issue!

In 2017-- as the Trump administration began-- Sharon moved to a new post with the Open Technology Institute, where she is now the Policy Director. OTI is an initiative of New America, a DC-based think tank. Her current job allows Sharon to keep a hand in her specialty: that crucial balance between national security and individual rights.

It is fascinating to me the way that so many people in our class have found a niche that is both important and contemporary. Among us, Sharon may fit that description best.