Episode 176 - Next Lawyer Up with Ron Sykstus featuring Jack Duncan

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.