Law School Recipients
Lifetime Achievement Award
FRANKLYN M. GIMBEL, LAW '60
Milwaukee
A lifetime in the law has forged Franklyn’s personal formula for success: Don’t be judgmental. Giving back to the community can be just as rewarding as winning a big case. And never give up just because you appear to be an underdog.
For Franklyn, the ever-changing challenge of serving clients is the key to feeling young.
“I enjoy the fact that, on most days, new clients bring challenging problems to our office for resolution or mitigation,” he says. “Full mental and physical engagement keeps me young.”
Franklyn founded the law firm Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin and Brown after serving as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1963–68. He is a past president of the Milwaukee Bar Association, which honored him as its Lawyer of the Year in 1989 and 1998; a past chairman of the State Bar of Wisconsin Board of Governors; and a past president of the State Bar of Wisconsin. He also was honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Wisconsin Bar Foundation and Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association.
Franklyn, a member of the Law School’s advisory board, has been involved in a wide variety of community organizations. Among those organizations are the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission and Wisconsin Center District, within which he has served as board chair since 1995. He credits his father, Harold Gimbel, for giving him the sense of self-motivation it took to finish law school while he was working to support his family.
“He instilled a belief that I could achieve more by all-out effort and commitment tomorrow than I did today,” Franklyn says. “Do not rest on laurels that you may have received today, and do not allow today’s defeats to chill tomorrow’s efforts.”
