Next Lawyer Up Podcast with Attorney Ron Sykstus

Attorney Luke Carlson is the managing partner of LS Carlson Law, PC with offices located in California and Florida.  Luke's firm handles business law, real estate matters, and estate planning. In addition to these practice areas , Luke and his firm are subject matter experts in the field of HOA law.  In fact, you can find Luke's book, "Bad HOA – The Homeowners Guide to Going to War and Reclaiming your Power" here. I enjoyed getting to know Luke and hearing his story on this episode of the podcast.   

Attorney Chris Weston is the managing partner of the long-established and well-respected law firm of Johnston, Moore and Weston in Huntsville, Alabama.  As you'll hear on this episode of the podcast, Chris was a nomad of sorts growing up, moving every three years or so.  Finally settled in North Alabama, Chris took another detour to attend Albany Law School in New York, before returning back to Huntsville.  As we discuss, Chris entered law school in 2008, just as the economy was starting to bottom out from the housing crisis.  Chris is an example of how a strong work ethic, combined with talent, can have a great  end result. I enjoyed getting to know his story on this episode of the podcast.    

Rico has been a very close friend of mine who I have known since we were young U.S. Army JAG First Lieutenants at Fort Bliss, Texas.  Beyond that, Rico introduced me to my wife of 36 years, Patty, as we all lived in the same apartment complex on the west side of El Paso.  As I always describe to people, Rico is the closest individual to being a "Renaissance man" that I have ever met.  Everything that he does, he does great!  His reputation at Fort Bliss was that of a fantastic lawyer whom everyone respected.  On this episode of the podcast, we talk about the arc of his career.  Here are two facts that I have always really enjoyed about him –Rico's burning desire to attend the University of Notre Dame since he was very young, as seen here,  and also his knowledge that he would be involved in immigration law for the long term of his career, as seen here in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Volume 1, Number 1 as editor in chief.  Rico is a great guy, widely admired, and a friend and mentor to many.  I enjoyed catching up with him on this episode of the podcast.  

Judge Karen Hall was the longest-serving judge in Madison County, Alabama history, when combined with her time on the bench as a District Court Judge followed by her long tenure as a Circuit Court judge, until her recent retirement. And when I say retired, I mean just retired as in this podcast was done on her first day off after working for a lifetime!  Judge Hall was instrumental in starting and then continuing the long tradition of judges in Madison County who are smart, compassionate, and considerate of both lawyers and litigants in their courtrooms, which is just the type of judge anyone wants deciding his or her case. Judge Hall is originally from Florida, who then made her way to Alabama for law school after fun filled years as an excellent student, Chi Omega sorority member, and leader at the University of Florida.  She subsequently met her husband, well-known North Alabama attorney Bill Hall, when both were clerking for Alabama appellate judges in Montgomery after law school. As she discusses on the podcast, Bill is from the Huntsville area, so they made their way here after their clerkships.  Two out of three of their children have followed in their footsteps and are licensed lawyers in Alabama as well. One of the most remarkable things about Judge Hall's career is how she continued to do work in the community, even while serving as a busy full-time judge.  She devoted a lot of her free time to making Huntsville and the Madison County area a better place for all of us. Franky, her involvement, and the work she did for so many organizations, locally and statewide, is too numerous to list here in what I am trying to keep to a brief blog post! I enjoyed getting to know Judge Hall's history on this episode of the podcast and I think you will like it as well!

Heath Brooks is a highly respected personal injury attorney with the Huntsville law firm of Timberlake, League and Brooks. You can also listen to previous podcast episodes with Heath's law partners Michael Timberlake here, Will League here and William Messervy here. In addition, this law firm sponsors the popular LawCall show on WAAY/ABC 31 on Sunday nights at 10:30pm.   As you'll hear, Heath has been working at this same law firm for almost two decades, following  a fortuitous concert featuring the Drive By Truckers. As a long-time musician, Heath and I also discussed Muscle Shoals and its place in American musical history.  As an aside, here is a podcast with attorney Rick Hall whose father founded the Fame Music Studio in the Shoals.  In addition to his interest in music, Heath also has a background in anthropology and archaeology, so much so that he got his degree in it and worked in the field for several years before going to law school.  He also received a Master's degree in Environmental Management at the same time he studied for his law degree.  Heath is as he appears on LawCall – affable, approachable, funny and smart.  It is no wonder that he has a lot of prospective clients seeking his representation! I enjoyed getting to know Heath's history on this episode of the podcast. 

Attorney Jack Duncan is an exceptional creditors rights lawyer who is highly respected throughout the state of Alabama.  Jack is a partner at the large regional firm of McCalla Raymer.  As an aside, here is a previous podcast I did with another McCalla partner, Mike McComick.  Jack started his education with an eye toward engineering, but with three impressive semesters of calculus under his belt he then veered to finance. Jack took full advantage of all of the educational opportunities that the University of Alabama had to offer, to include an undergraduate degree in finance, a master's degree in finance and then followed by a law degree.  I have known Jack for a long time, and I enjoyed getting to know his back story on this episode of the podcast.   

Affectionately known as Bill Harvey or William Harvey, I have known Bill since we met as law school classmates at the age of 22.  In fact, we became roommates for our 2L and 3L years.  As you'll hear, I like to take credit for introducing Bill to the most important person in his life, his long-time spouse Kathy, but Bill is somewhat reticent to give me credit!  Bill stayed in the Chicago area after we graduated and has worked in the insurance field for the entirety of his career. As long as I have known Bill, nothing is more important to him than Kathy and his three kids.  Also of note, this long-time hockey player moved a number of years ago to North Carolina to escape the tough Chicago winters.  I enjoyed catching up with him on the episode of the podcast as I don't ever recall digging into his back story which I was able to do so here.  

As I learned on this episode of the podcast, Attorney Tim Semelroth is an Iowa boy through and through!   We talked a lot about wrestling because, if you grow up in Iowa, wrestling is pretty much in your blood.  Tim has an interesting career arc and an impressive pedigree. He runs one of the largest personal injury practices in the state of Iowa.  Also, Tim and his wife grew up in Iowa. His wife had a thoughtful observation when Tim was deciding on where to practice law. She told him that if they did not live in Iowa, then they would spend all of their vacation time traveling back there to visit family. That struck me as a very sage piece of advice, especially when young lawyers are looking at where they want to practice law.  Tim has been with the same law firm for twenty plus years and the history of his firm is interesting, as is how he got there. I enjoyed getting to know Tim's story on this episode of the podcast.

Ralph Hornsby, Jr., is a highly respected attorney who has been practicing law in North Alabama for a long time.  He comes from great stock and he has an impressive pedigree!  Ralph learned his craft, in large part, from his father, Ralph Hornsby and former Madison County Circuit Court Judge S.A. "Bud" Watson.  All of Ralph's law firm information for Hornsby, Watson and Associates is located here. Ralph focuses his law practice, as he has been doing since the beginning, on personal injury law. I enjoyed getting to know Ralph on this episode of the podcast.   

Attorney Brian White is a highly respected attorney located in Decatur, Alabama where he has been practicing law for many years. I have known Brian by reputation, but this is my first opportunity to get to speak with him. He works throughout North Alabama and concentrates his practice especially in the counties of Morgan, Lawrence, Limestone and Cullman. Brian focuses the majority of his law practice on the defense of major criminal offense allegations to include capital murder cases.  His firm, White and Iverson, also practices in the areas of family law and estate planning. I enjoyed getting to know Brian on this episode of the podcast.     

I have known LTG (Ret) Stuart Risch since we were both first lieutenants in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. We met as students in the 116th JAG Basic Course at the Army's law school in Charlottesville, Virginia. It is an understatement to say that Stu has had a spectacular career with his 40 years of uniformed service with the U.S. Army -- 36 of which were on active duty, while another 4 were spent in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Field Artillery officer -- rising to the pinnacle of the Army's military law leadership as The Judge Advocate General.  I always recall Stu as being an affable, smart and well-liked guy and my initial assessment of him was obviously spot-on correct!  Out of the JAG Basic Course, Stu went to Fort Hood, Texas where he spent a good part of his career and it put him on the path to the success that he has had.  In this episode of the podcast, we cover Stu's long career as noted in his Wikipedia page here , and it was as if no time at all has passed since we last talked in Charlottesville.  Following his Army career, Stu became a business litigation and government investigations and white-collar law partner with Shook, Hardy and Bacon, LLP,  in their Washington, D.C. office.   I really enjoyed catching up with him and I think you will like hearing his story and about his service to our country.  On a funny side note that he talks about on the podcast, Stu spent a lot of time and energy initially trying to get out of his active-duty Army commitment to continue serving in the US Army Reserve at the beginning of his career.  Our country is lucky that he didn't succeed in that endeavor!     

Attorney Rho Thomas has an impressive pedigree which led her into practicing "big law" with a large law firm in Georgia after she received her law degree.  After an introspective search by her and her husband, a practicing doctor, following the birth of their first child, the pair dove into learning about money and transformed their personal finances, paying off a significant amount of student loan debt. Later, Rho completely morphed and changed her career into helping lawyers deal with their finances and get out of debt just like she and her husband were able to do.  In fact, here is Rho's free guide on 5 mistakes people make when getting out of debt.  She also has a podcast and here is her LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamrhothomas  I enjoyed getting to know Rho's journey on this episode of the podcast and to learn about the important work that she does for which she clearly has a passion.  I hope you enjoy it!  

Darren Wurz is a certified financial planner with a master's degree in financial planning. He specializes in financial planning for lawyers and law firm owners.  Darren is the author of the book, "The Lawyer Millionaire: The Complete Guide for Attorneys on Maximizing Wealth, Minimizing Taxes and Retiring with Confidence published by the American Bar Association.  Darren also hosts The Lawyer Millionaire podcast.  These are obviously catchy titles and draw the attention of a lot of attorneys, me included!  Darren spoke to me and my colleagues with the American Consumer Bankruptcy College at our semi-annual meeting last year. I enjoyed meeting Darren and I won a copy of his book in a raffle. It is a great book and I highly recommend it. I enjoyed getting to know Darren on this episode of the podcast and I think an awful lot of lawyers and, really,  anyone interested in accumulating financial assets in a sound and logical way would get a good bit out of the information that Darren provides. 

If not for my wife Patty's love of all things Tik Tok, I would not have run across attorney Adrienne Hines.  Adrienne is a long-standing attorney in Ohio who practiced initially in the area of worker's compensation and now works pretty exclusively in the area of consumer bankruptcy.  More than that, Adrienne has morphed her law practice into providing important and detailed information on bankruptcy through her social media platforms on Tik Tok and Instagram.  Fans of Tik Tok will recognize her by her user name and website called TheLadyLikeLawyer.com  As you'll hear, Adrienne is smart, funny, warm and engaging.  It is no wonder that she has so many followers!  As you'll see and hear, she lives her practice with the mantra of "Debt Relief with Dignity."  Her law practice approach mirrors our Bond and Botes' law practice insofar as how we try to help our own bankruptcy clients in Alabama and Mississippi.  The difference, however, is that Adrienne speaks to a vast nationwide audience of Tik Tok users and, as I mentioned, she provides tremendously valuable information to them.  I enjoyed getting to know her story on this episode of the podcast.   

  Robin Wolfe is a long-standing and highly regarded criminal defense attorney located in Huntsville, Alabama.  Robin has had a singular focus of practice in the area of criminal law since early in her career.  Robin handles every type of criminal case imaginable to include capital murder and death penalty cases.  She is fortunate to have a highly skilled investigator working with her, Jackie, who also happens to be her husband!  In addition, their son Jack works as a law clerk for them when not in his graduate studies program.  Robin is highly respected in Alabama for the legal work that she does.  She also mentioned to me, after we finished the podcast, that she is open, willing and eager to help out young lawyers who decide to practice criminal defense law.  This would be a great opportunity for young lawyers to learn the correct way to handle a criminal defense case from Robin who is a master of her craft.     

Kenya Rothstein is an environmental attorney barred in California and Washington, D.C. I recently learned about Kenya from an article in the January/February 2025 edition of the Washington Lawyer magazine which gets distributed to all DC bar members.  Kenya has her own podcast called "Thank You For Saying NO" which is available at all podcast platforms.  She has been doing this podcast for several years, and it focuses on finding a way to be thankful and appreciative when you are told no.  As you'll hear, Kenya has an up-tempo and infectious spirit, so it is no wonder that her podcast does well!  I really enjoyed getting to know her story on this episode of the podcast.   

Attorney Charles Brinkley comes from the long line of highly respected "Brinkley" attorneys in North Alabama, to include  Allen Brinkley, John Brinkley and Becca Brinkley.  Charles has had a varied practice of law over the years to include personal injury, criminal defense and family law.  For the past decade or so, Charles has focused primarily on real estate commercial and residential transactions along with estate planning. Charles is located in a historic building on Randolph Street built in 1836.   Jonathan Lusk is a good friend of his located in the same building who practices exclusively in the area of family law.  I enjoyed getting to know Charles' story on this episode of the podcast.   

Attorney George Flowers is an exceptional DUI and criminal defense attorney located in Huntsville, Alabama. He practices throughout the state of Alabama. George previously served as a DUI prosecutor in Montgomery, Alabama until he moved to Huntsville and worked for several years in partnership with attorney Phil Price before starting his own law firm.  George is considered a master of his craft in the world of DUI defense.  I enjoyed getting to know him on this episode of the podcast.   

Attorney George Smith is a highly respected and well-known attorney throughout the State of Alabama.  As most attorneys in the state know George, I have known him by reputation, and this is really the first time for me to speak in depth with him. George is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law and he also received an LLM in tax law from the New York University School of Law. Following that, he clerked in Washington DC for a judge on the U.S. Tax Court for two years before returning back to Huntsville to start his law practice.  George has practiced with large Alabama law firms throughout his career.  He has been at Bradley since 2012.  As you'll hear, even with his impressive background, George is easy to talk to and I can well imagine that his clients appreciate the skill and practicality he brings as he represents them.  Since George has practiced in "big law" for his entire legal career, we also discussed a number of his friends and colleagues that are also very prominent lawyers in Alabama to include Pat Graves, Frank Caprio, Bartley Loftin, David Holt, Kevin Gray, Chris Hinson and Joe Ritch. I enjoyed getting to know George on this episode of the podcast and I think you will like his humble and up-tempo spirit!  

I have appeared before Judge Carol Ricciardello many times over the years for security clearance revocation hearings. She served for the last twenty years as an Administrative Judge with the Department of Defense (DOD)  Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) where she heard and decided over 1,700 security clearance cases during her tenure. This was really the second job in her career, as she first served for over 20 years on active-duty with the United States Navy, rising to ultimately serve as the Chief Judge of the Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary covering and supervising all Navy and Marine Corps Trial Judges around the world. Carol retired from the U.S. Navy as a highly decorated 0-6 Captain.  I have always liked her spirit, and I found her to be very smart, thoughtful, and straight forward.  I have been waiting for her retirement in order to do this podcast with her to learn her story.  I hope you enjoy it!   PS. You may also like a podcast I did with one of Carol's colleagues, retired DOD DOHA Judge Michael Leonard here.