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Friday, November 06, 2009
'Larger Than Life' Franchini Lived for Law
By Scott Sandlin
Journal Staff Writer
Gene Franchini caught more fish, told bigger stories and probably participated in more mock trial rounds than any judge in the United States.
Ask anybody who knew Gene Edward Franchini, and inevitably, there's this: “He was larger than life.”
The 74-year-old lawyer, judge and jurist died unexpectedly Wednesday evening while guest lecturing to the entire first-year class of more than 100 law students at the University of New Mexico School of Law about law and conscience. He'd been regaling the students for a half-hour when he collapsed.
Rosary will be at 7 p.m. today and the funeral mass at 9 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Fatima church, 4020 Lomas NE, with burial following at Gate of Heaven cemetery. The family has asked for memorial donations to the Center for Civic Values, P.O. Box 2184, Albuquerque, 87103. He is survived by son Jamie and daughters Pamela Trent, Nancy Franchini and Gina Franchini, and eight grandchildren.
“It seemed like he could pull fish out of the water when nobody else saw a ripple,” said retired state Supreme Court Justice Dick Ransom. That was almost a metaphor for how Franchini approached life. As chief justice in the early 1990s, Ransom relied on Franchini to be the liaison between the judiciary and the Legislature, a role that suited them both and aided the state's judges immeasurably, Ransom said.
Retired U.S. Sen. Pete V. Domenici recalled knowing Franchini from his football days at St. Mary's School. “He was a small, left-handed and smart football player. Even though I was older he always remembered our early years growing up in the valley of Albuquerque,” Domenici said.
Franchini was born in 1935 in Albuquerque to Mario and Lena Franchini and attended schools from elementary through high school attached to St. Mary's Catholic Church downtown. He attended Loyola University of the South in New Orleans, received a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of New Mexico, a juris doctorate from Georgetown University and a master's in judicial process from the University of Virginia in 1995.
He spent 32 years as a trial lawyer and six years as a district judge in the 2nd Judicial District in Albuquerque before resigning in protest in 1981 over a mandatory sentence he believed unfair. In 12 years on the New Mexico Supreme Court starting in November 1990, he wrote more than 160 opinions, participated in well over 400 and served as chief justice 1997-1998.
He was the first president of New Mexico Trial Lawyers and served on numerous boards, including the city Labor Relations Board and the Ethics Board. Retiring in 2002, he kept his hand in the law by conducting mediations and arbitrations, lecturing at the law school and remaining active in bar associations.
One of his enduring passions was the mock trial competition sponsored in New Mexico by the Center for Civic Values.
Director Michelle Giger said that Franchini and his wife of 40 years, Glynnie Franchini, became the godparents of the mock trial competition, working in every one for the past 25 years and judging at the national event every year but two since 1992.
“He generally did seven rounds a year,” she said. “We're talking three hours at a whack. It's an incredible gift to those kids. And they adored him.”
Giger said Franchini used his considerable oratorical flourish to good effect during the orientation sessions, especially when New Mexico hosted the national competition.
Before every round, she recalled, he'd tell judges very seriously about “D'baha. That's New Mexican for 'Don't be a horse's ass.' He got huge laughter when he'd say that.”
In retirement since 2002, he and Glynnie often traveled, including a surprise 40th-anniversary trip to the Amazon River basin last year.
Above all was his passion for the law, a feeling that ran so deep he would shed tears at every bar admission ceremony, Chief Justice Edward Chávez recalled.
“He leaves a legacy of fairness and love of the law,” Domenici said. “He will be sorely missed.”
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