Ted Frank

Infobox Person


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name = Ted Frank
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birth_date =birth date and age |1968|12|14
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death_date =
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education = BA, Brandeis University;
JD, University of Chicago
occupation = Lawyer
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Theodore H. Frank (born 1968) is an American lawyer and a "leading tort-reform advocate" in the United States. [cite web|url=http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/10/30/trial-lawyers-defends-themselves-while-taking-on-terrorism/|author=Peter Lattman|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=October 30, 2006|accessdate=2007-08-25|title=Trial Lawyers Defend Themselves While Taking On Terrorism] He is a fellow with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and director of the AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest (formerly the National Legal Center for the Public Interest). Frank has written and spoken on liability matters such as product liability, asbestos litigation, medical malpractice, and pharmaceuticals.

Frank has written articles for several publications, including the "Wall Street Journal" and "The Washington Post", as well as several law reviews. He has acted as pundit for several news networks, including NPR, the BBC, and Fox News. He is on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group and contributes regularly to several conservative legal weblogs.

Background and early career

Frank earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University in 1991. He authored a number of columns for his campus newspaper and several political magazines. He was a member of the student senate and had objected to a campaign to stop serving pork at the Jewish university. [cite news| title='Pigtown' at Brandeis U. Protests Food Policy| author=Special to the New York Times| publisher="New York Times" | date=1988-05-28 "Ted Frank, a member of the Brandeis student senate, said that a majority of students disagree. He said, 'The general feeling is that we're not forcing them to eat pork and they shouldn't be forcing us not to eat pork.'"]

In 1994 Frank earned his "Juris Doctor" with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School. [O'Brien, John (July 16, 2007), [http://www.wvrecord.com/news/197951-attorney-w.-va.-sc-ignoring-law-for-benefit-of-trial-lawyers Attorney: W. Va. SC ignoring law for benefit of trial lawyers] , "The West Virginia Record". Retrieved September 1, 2007.] At Chicago he earned Order of the Coif and served on the law review. [Listed as "Theodore Frank" on masthead for vols. 60-61. Frank wrote a student comment, " [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0041-9494(199421)61%3A2%3C639%3ATEITAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9 The Economic Interest Test and Collective Action Problems in Antitrust Tie-in Cases] ", 61 U. Chi. L. Rev. 639.] After clerking for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Frank entered private practice as a litigator on class action tort cases at law firms Kirkland & Ellis, Irell & Manella, and O’Melveny & Myers. [http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.101/scholar.asp aei.org - official American Enterprise Institute biography] ] As part of his practice he defended a lawsuit filed by the ACLU to delay the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, defended Vioxx liability cases, and also served on the defense team of several antitrust and patent cases.

While at Chicago Law, he was a well-known presence on Usenet groups, [cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/net_surf.html|publisher=Wired|title=Net Surf|date=Sept./Oct. 1993] where he researched urban legends, wrote the alt.folklore.college FAQ [ [http://www.skepticfiles.org/urban/afcolleg.htm Subject: Alt.folklore.college Frequently Asked Questions Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 16:10:26 G ] ] , and regularly participated along with snopes in an activity then known as "trolling for newbies" (the term "trolling" did not then have the negative connotations it does today). [cite web
title=The Straight Dope
author=Cecil Adams
date=2000-05-14
url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtroll.html
accessdate=2007-08-26
quote=To be fair, not all trolls are slimeballs. On some message boards, veteran posters with a mischievous bent occasionally go "newbie trolling.] See Michele Tepper, "Usenet Communities and the Cultural Politics of Information" in David Porter, ed., [http://books.google.com/books?id=2LZQddhG4UwC&pg=PA48&dq=snopes&sig=EfKiqXVTyGUbD4T0Z-cYl_qApA8 Internet Culture (1997)] at 48 (" [T] he two most notorious trollers in AFU, Ted Frank and snopes, are also two of the most consistent posters of serious research.").] He also delivered rebuttals to hard right and
conspiracist legal arguments on alt.conspiracy. [cite web|author=Chip Berlet|url=http://www.simson.net/ref/leaderless/berlet_when_hate_went_online.pdf|date=2000|title=When Hate Went Online.] Frank was also an early contributor to the Baseball Prospectus collective through essays on rec.sport.baseball. ["Baseball Prospectus '97". Joe Sheehan, Clay Davenport, and Gary Huckabay, Eds. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books Inc. (former Brassey’s Inc.), 1997. ISBN 0-9655674-0-0.] [cite web|url=http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2086|author=Gary Huckabay|title=6-4-3:State of the Prospectus, July 2003|date=2003-07-11|publisher=Baseball Prospectus]

Frank is the cousin of "Washington Post" reporter Garance Franke-Ruta.

Advocate of tort reform

Frank joined the AEI as a fellow in 2005, where he has a record of speaking and writing on matters of legal liability. Areas of interest and expertise include product liability, asbestos litigation, medical malpractice, and pharmaceuticals such as Vioxx. Frank's writing appears in law reviews, the "Wall Street Journal", the "Washington Post", and "National Review" Online. Appearances and interviews include NPR, BBC, C-SPAN, and Fox News. [ [http://www.aei.org/research/liability/scholars/projectID.23/default.asp Liability Project Scholars and Staff] ] As head of AEI's Liability Project his opinions and analysis of liability litigation have been quoted in the "New York Times", "BusinessWeek" and the "New York Law Journal". [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/us/15bar.html Competing for Clients, and Paying by the Click] , Adam Liptak, New York Times, October 15, 2007] [ [http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc20070820_113598.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories Cell-Phone Contract Disputes Heat Up] , Olga Kharif, Businessweek, August 20, 2007.] [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?hubtype=TopStories&id=1187600830241 Observers Speculate Justices Could Rejoin Securities Issue] , Tony Mauro, The New York Law Journal, August 21, 2007.]

Frank, together with Walter Olson, contributes regularly to the conservative legal weblog "Overlawyered". He has also contributed to "PointofLaw.com", maintained by Olson and sponsored by the Manhattan Institute. [ [http://www.pointoflaw.com/masthead/legal_experts.php PointofLaw.com masthead] ] He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group.

Recorded viewpoints

Frank is known for his views supporting tort reform in the United States, drawing criticism from the CEO of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. [cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901315_pf.html|publisher=Washington Post|date=2006-10-21|author=Jon Haber|title=A Response to 'End Open-Ended Litigation' Frank responded on the [http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2006/10/a-response-to-a.php Point of Law weblog] .] In a "Wall Street Journal" opinion piece, Frank argued that the Department of Treasury and SEC should urge the Supreme Court to reject expanded securities litigation liability in "Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta". [cite news|author=Ted Frank | title= Arbitrary and Unfair | publisher="Wall Street Journal"|url=http://www.aei.org/news/newsID.26280/news_detail.asp|date=2007-05-31 Congressmen John Conyers, Jr. and Barney Frank criticized this op-ed in their [http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/stoneridge_v_scientific-atlanta_amicus_filed_7-30-07.pdf late "amicus" brief] , claiming that Frank's argument substituted policy considerations for the plain text of statute. [http://www.overlawyered.com/2007/07/stoneridge_wherein_i_am_a_foot.html Frank rebutted the allegation on the Overlawyered weblog.] ] Frank has criticized obesity lawsuits, calling them "rent-seeking vehicles that are neither good law nor good public policy." [cite journal|author=Theodore H. Frank | title=A Taxonomy of Obesity Litigation|publisher=University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review |date=2006|url=http://ssrn.com/abstract=926536|accessdate=2007-08-26]

Frank has been critical of Michael Moore, calling him and his film "Sicko" "misleading". [ [http://american.com/archive/2007/august-0807/more-fudged-michael-moore-numbers "Sicko’s Box Office Numbers are Fuzzy, Too" by Ted Frank, "The American", Wednesday, August 8, 2007] ] He is also critical of Wikipedia, as quoted by CBS News. "Wikipedia in general suffers from a severe bias; articles about controversial topics reward persistence over accuracy," he wrote. [ [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/08/blogophile/main1873436.shtml?source=RSSattr=Opinion:Blogophile_1873436 "Stephen Colbert Sparks Wiki War", CBS News] ] [cite web
url=http://www.overlawyered.com/2006/08/trial_lawyer_wikiality.html
title=Trial lawyer "Wikiality"
author=Ted Frank |publisher=Overlawyered.com
date=August 3, 2006 |accessdate=2007-12-21]

Frank objected to the Hot Coffee class action settlement over the "hidden sex scenes" in on the grounds that the settlement sought $1 million for attorneys' fees yet paid class members less than $27,000.cite web|url=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/05/27/did-lawyers-inflate-fees-hot-coffee-class-action-suit|publisher=Gamepolitics.com|title=Did Lawyers Inflate Fees in Hot Coffee Class Action Suit?|date=05-27-2008] cite web
url=http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/grand-theft-auto-class-action-settlement-26505-for-the-unrepresented-class-1-million-fee-request/
publisher=Overlawyered
title=Grand Theft Auto: Class Action Settlement - $26,505 for the unrepresented class, $1 million fee request
date=05-26-2008 See also [http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1914169/frank-gta-opposition-brief.pdf Brief of Objector Theodore H. Frank in Opposition to Plaintiff's Memorandum in Support of Proposed Settlement and Award of Attorneys' Fees and Expenses] In re Grand Theft Auto Video Game Consumer Litigation (No. II), 1:06-md-1739 (SWK), S.D.N.Y.] A court hearing is scheduled June 25, 2008. Frank told the "New York Times" that the plaintiff's attorneys most likely "brought a meritless lawsuit that had no business being brought to court at all." [cite news|title=Hidden Sex Scenes Draw Ho-Hum, Except From Lawyers |author=JONATHAN D. GLATER | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/technology/25settle.html | publisher="New York Times" | date=2008-06-25]

References

External links

* [http://www.aei.org/frank Home page at American Enterprise Institute (aei.org)]
* [http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=602587 SSRN page]
* [http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/id.105/author.asp Federalist Society biography]
* [http://www.overlawyered.com/ Overlawyered.com] - Blog on the U.S. litigation system.
* [http://pointoflaw.com/ Pointoflaw.com] - web magazine sponsored by the Manhattan Institute on the U.S. litigation system.
* [http://tedfrank.powerblogs.com/ Lagniappe: an unserious blog] - personal blog