/about/jonathan-franks/

Jonathan Franks

Jonathan Franks is President and Founder of LUCID Strategies, a boutique crisis and issues management firm.

For more than fifteen years he has defended people, companies, charities, and families when the public story could decide the outcome. His work covers crisis and issues management, litigation communications, reputation defense, and media relations. It also covers the public advocacy that has helped bring wrongfully detained Americans and hostages home.

His work and commentary have appeared on ABC News Nightline, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox, NBC News, PBS, BBC, CBC, NewsNation, and the Associated Press.

Across the practice

LUCID is called when a reputation, a case, or a life is about to be decided in public. Often a matter carries legal, political, and reputational stakes at once, and silence would let someone else define the facts. Franks leads that work: crisis and issues management, litigation communications, and reputation strategy.

Litigation communications is where the courtroom and the coverage meet. Franks has run the public side of matters fought in the press as much as in a filing:

A physician targeted in the media as a settlement-pressure tactic in a frivolous malpractice action.
A private company whose sole shareholder had been arrested, with the company's future turning on how the story was handled.
D.A.R.E. and other charities repelling nationwide anti-competitive measures.

He also represented Ambassador R. James Woolsey, the former Director of the CIA, through Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The Washington Post, NBC News, and Reuters covered the matter.

The job is not to make a client loud. It is to make the true story clear enough that the right people can act on it.

Public advocacy that has helped bring Americans home

The same discipline carries into LUCID's advocacy for wrongfully detained Americans and hostages: disciplined facts, sustained public pressure, and a clear ask aimed at the people who can act.

The homecomings Franks helped win include Trevor Reed, Amir Hekmati, Michael White, Andrew Tahmooressi, Taylor Dudley, James Frisvold, Savoi Wright, and the Turks and Caicos three — Bryan Hagerich, Ryan Watson, and Sharitta Grier.

Andrew Tahmooressi, a Marine, was arrested at the San Ysidro border crossing on March 31, 2014. LUCID took over management of the case and shepherded it through to his release from Tijuana on October 31, 2014, 214 days later. Trevor Reed, also a Marine, was held in Russia for 985 days. The campaign put his name in front of the people who could act, with demonstrations in Fort Worth and Washington and an Oval Office meeting with President Biden. He came home.

Franks also serves as strategist and spokesperson for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign. Since its founding, more than two dozen Americans held in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela have come home.

Learn more about LUCID's work for Americans detained abroad and selected results.

Background

Franks co-founded LUCID Public Relations in May 2009 and founded LUCID Strategies in October 2017. Before LUCID, he was Vice President and Senior Advisor to Montel Williams, and earlier worked in the Office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

His hostage and wrongful-detention work has been covered by CNN, MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, NPR, USA Today, The New Yorker, and Yahoo Finance, and he was profiled by ABC News Nightline. His CNN appearances include Don Lemon, Erin Burnett, and CNN News Central.

Speak with us confidentially

If a matter is about to become public — a reputational crisis, a lawsuit turning into a headline, or a leadership question playing out in the press — speak with us confidentially. We respond quickly, and LUCID is reachable after hours.

Speak with us confidentially 310-859-4600