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.
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!