Post-Conviction Relief, Expungement & Record Sealing Division Lead
Nick Franklin leads Seidlich Law's Post-Conviction Relief, Expungement and Record Sealing division, where he works with Floridians who have done everything the court asked of them and still watch their past surface in every background check, every job application, and every rental agreement. Helping those clients close that chapter is the whole of his work here, and he takes it personally.
Mr. Franklin was born in Tallahassee in 1990, the fourth Joseph Dominic Franklin in his family. His father spent thirty-five years as a tax law specialist with the Florida Department of Revenue while also serving as a pastor, and his mother was a registered nurse. He grew up in a household where the law, service, and music were all part of ordinary life. He sat down behind a drum set at four years old, later taught himself piano, and still writes and plays today.
The road that brought him back to the law was longer than the one his parents had mapped out for him. Mr. Franklin has seen the criminal justice system from a vantage point that very few legal professionals ever do, and what he found there was a calling. He began studying the law in earnest, earned his credentials, and went to work reading records, running down authority, and drafting for people who had no one else to draft for them. He does not describe that stretch of his life as wasted time. He describes it as the time he found out what he was for.
He has now spent more than a decade in post-conviction and appellate practice, concentrating on motions under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, state and federal habeas corpus, sentencing and scoresheet challenges, and civil rights litigation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. His research and drafting contributed to reversals and remands in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and in Florida's Fourth and Fifth District Courts of Appeal, including Dixon v. Pollock (11th Cir. 2018), in which the appellate court vacated a dismissal entered under Heck v. Humphrey. He holds a Paralegal Studies Certificate from Blackstone Career Institute and a Law Clerk Certification issued in Florida, works daily in LexisNexis and Westlaw, and is at his best deep inside a thick trial record, hunting for the issue everyone else read past.
At Seidlich Law, Mr. Franklin manages the division's caseload from the first consultation through the final order, under the supervision of the firm's attorneys. He conducts eligibility review under Florida Statutes §§ 943.0585 and 943.059, prepares certificate of eligibility applications with FDLE, drafts petitions, affidavits, and supporting motions, tracks filings and hearing dates, and keeps clients informed in plain language at every step. Mr. Franklin is not an attorney and does not provide legal advice.
Ask him why he chose this work and he will tell you plainly. He believes people are more than the worst thing sitting on their record, he has watched what happens when somebody finally gets a door opened for them, and he would rather spend his career opening them. He lives on Florida's Space Coast, still plays and writes music, and answers the phone.
