Ex-Greenville DA opens his law practice
Carlton returns to where he started his career

BY BRAD RILES
DBJ Contributing Writer

To have the largest law office in Mississippi is a pretty big achievement for Frank Carlton.

“I have the largest law office in the state of Mississippi,” said former Greenville District Attorney Carlton. “And there is nobody here but me.

“I have leased an old cotton warehouse and lawyers from Jackson stop by every now and then and I’ll tell them, ‘When you get back down there you tell those folks that you visited me and I got the largest law office in the state.’”

The lawyers usually agree, he said.

The Greenville resident recently left his position as district attorney so that he could open his own practice and enjoy the freedoms of his new job.

“I didn’t run for reelection and now I am a single practitioner practicing law just like the old days where I started,” Carlton said. “I’ve come full cycle.”

“I’ve picked up some criminal work, which I guess is sort of normal having been the district attorney,” Carlton said. “I think I have some expertise in that field.

“Most of (my practice) has been tort practice – people hurt in car wrecks and injuries this way and that.”

A lot has changed over the years and Carlton has witnessed almost a new type of attitude develop among not only lawyers, but businesses as well.

“It is a lot more administrative than it used to be,” said Carlton of his profession.

“Truth is, that is the same transformation that went on the district attorney’s office,” he said. “When I started out as district attorney, it was me and my secretary. When I left I had a staff of 17.”

He said in the ensuing years, the job had developed into more of an administrative position.

“The realization of that is what really tipped the scales of me leaving,” he said. “I don’t want to spend whatever time I have left as an administrator.

“I’m a hands-on type of guy and a get-involved person. I want to get out there and pull somebody’s hair and want them to pull mine. I’m a fighter.”

While Carlton attempted all the various sports growing up, one stuck with him more than the others.

“I played all of the team sports and I wasn’t good at any of them, except boxing,” he said. “I was the state golden glove champion for three years. That is an individual sport and I won or lost because of what I did.

His attitude toward boxing was the same towards life and business, he said.

Eventually, Carlton returned to the law field and he noticed that a few things had changed during his term as an elected official.

“The very first lawsuit I filed, I typed it up, read over it and was very proud of it so I marched it over to the court house to be filed.

Carlton said he discovered several aspects or procedures of his lawsuit that were done incorrectly.

“Number one, you had to file a civil cover sheet and I didn’t even know what that was,” said Carlton and added that the cover sheet indicates what type of case is being filed.

He added, “The most basic change was when the lady looked at my sheet and said, ‘What is a declaration?’ and I said ‘What do you mean, it is a lawsuit.’”

Carlton said the lady informed him that the correct term is now “complaints” and the previous term had not been used for over 20 years.

“I was so proud of my lawsuit and I had to come back and change it,” he said.

The judicial system is not the only thing Carlton is familiar with. He is also an official caterer, as well as a member of a cooking squad, which performs in area cooking contests.

Born in Los Angeles, Calif., during the Great Depression, Carlton experienced first hand results of that tragic period.

“My father got a job out there and my mom was pregnant when she moved out there,” Carlton said.

Nearly two months after he was born, his father lost his job resulting in the family’s move back to the Delta, he said.

Since then, Carlton watched as his own family has followed in his footsteps.

Carlton’s daughter, Neely, was a two-term senator of District 22 in the Delta and is currently one of Gov. Haley Barbour’s lawyers, Carlton said. DBJ