Judge Patty Demos is a highly respected jurist here in Madison County, Alabama. She has served on the bench for about a decade, after a long career as a prosecutor with the Madison County District Attorney’s Office. Her main focus during her prosecution time was in the area of child abuse where she ultimately directed the Family Violence and Sexual Assault unit for the DA’s office. She and her husband, Joe, have 4 boys who all wrestled in their youth and in high school. In fact, that is how I first met her since my three boys all wrestled for a rival high school. I enjoyed getting to catch up with Judge Demos on this episode of the podcast and I hope you enjoy getting to know her story here!
Zach Guyse is a highly respected attorney who practices throughout North Alabama. Zach is a partner at the long standing and well-regarded firm of Wolfe Jones. You can find my podcast with another Wolfe Jones law partner, Matt Hancock, here. Zach has an impressive background to include serving as a member of the law review at the University of Alabama School of Law and, as I tell him on the podcast, it is hard to believe that he has only been practicing law for a little over a decade! I enjoyed getting to know Zach’s story on this episode of the podcast..
Kevin Heard is a highly respected business attorney located in North Alabama. He is the founder and managing partner of Heard, Ary and Dauro, LLC. Kevin is board certified in business bankruptcy and he has been practicing law in North Alabama for about as long as I have. I have always liked Kevin’s up-tempo spirit. As you’ll hear on the podcast, Kevin is very smart, thoughtful and articulate. I haven’t talked to him in quite awhile and it was good to catch up with him on this episode of the podcast.
It is not a stretch to say that attorney Richard Jaffe is at the top of the legal profession in the state of Alabama. I say this somewhat objectively, given the fact that he has been consistently named as a top 50 lawyer in the State of Alabama for well over a decade by Super Lawyers, and Best Lawyers has listed him Lawyer of the Year for Birmingham in either White -collar criminal law or criminal defense 4 times in recent years. In fact, he was featured on the cover of the 2023 Mid-South Super Lawyers magazine and you can read that article here. This quote pretty much sums up his 45 plus year career: “A philosopher and a warrior. Richard Jaffe helps people from being executed by the state.” Richard’s book, “Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned”2 Ed is available at this link, and on Amazon .He is also a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL). I learned on the podcast that Richard got his start through the help of correspondence he started with Alabama’s then up and coming Attorney General, Bill Baxley. Also, during his career, he worked closely with former Alabama United States Senator Doug Jones as they taught each other state and federal legal practice. It obviously worked out well for both of them! It occurs to me that a lot of young lawyers just starting their legal careers can learn a lot from this episode with Richard as to how to have an enduring, impactful and satisfying career in the law