Submitted by the Bond & Botes Law Offices - Wednesday, July 9, 2025

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!
Written by Ron Sykstus
