S P E C I A L
F E A T U R E
Lyndsey E. Siara – Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
impressed by young
people who achieve
academic success while
tree. She recounted that
working part time.
her mother’s family
Judge Sisco attended
moved to Braidentown
Plant High, and after
(what we now know as
graduating from Van -
Bradenton) right before
derbilt University, she
the Civil War. Although
returned to Florida for
she grew up in Fort
law school at the
Myers, her family moved
University of Florida.
to Tampa when she
She knew she wanted to
started high school. Her
come back to Tampa —
family has long been in
her second home. So
the restaurant business.
1902
Judge Sisco began her
Her maternal grand -
legal career at the State
father, Smyth Brohard,
Judge Sisco’s maternal grandparents and family,
Attorney’s Office where
first opened a hamburger
who lived in Bradenton.
her love for trials first
stand for airmen training
took root. After six years
in Venice, Florida, during
and having prosecuted thousands of felony cases, she
World War II. The humble burger stand grew to become
joined a private firm specializing in white-collar criminal
Smitty’s Steakhouse and led to Judge Sisco’s grandfather
defense work, where she practiced mostly in federal court.
being elected mayor of Venice. Her father, Paul Peden,
Just four years later, she joined the judicial ranks. She
joined the family business and expanded it, opening The
always kind of knew she wanted to be a judge. Her
Veranda in Fort Myers in 1978, a restaurant offering
courtroom experiences along the way both inspired her
upscale Southern cuisine. Opening a second Veranda was
and gave her the experience she thought she needed to
the primary reason for her family’s move to Tampa in
do the job well. After watching colleagues like now
1981. In addition to the original Veranda, which is still
Second District Court of Appeal Judge Anthony Black
a staple of downtown Ft. Myers, her family also owns a
and now Circuit Court Judge Nick Nazaretian go
chain of barbecue restaurants called Rib City.
through the process of applying for judgeships, she threw
As one might expect, with a father as a restaurateur,
her name in the hat.
Judge Sisco spent many of her formative years in the
Along the way, she married attorney Paul Sisco; they
family’s restaurants, and to this day, she really enjoys
recently celebrated fifteen years of marriage! They have
eating out. Judge Sisco said that her parents always
two children, aged thirteen and eleven. In fact, she is fairly
stressed the importance of hard work and self-reliance.
certain that she is the only Thirteenth Circuit judge that
At age ten, Judge Sisco was expected to help vacuum the
has given birth not once, but twice, while on the bench.
restaurant on weekends, and through the years she has
As a parent, her weekends typically revolve around the
done almost every job in the industry — hostess, waitress,
children’s activities, but she also enjoys spending time on
bartender — including even one Thanksgiving spent
the water or traveling. Her recent travels found the family,
waiting tables on a moving train. The only exception was
including her eighty-five-year-old mother-in-law, in Europe
that she was never assigned to the kitchen (“I was the
for two weeks, exploring Italy, France, and Spain. In
only girl, and had three brothers, so I was never put on
Barcelona, she encountered one of the most incredible
dishwashing duty,” she laughed).
places she had ever visited — La Sagrada Família — a
Judge Sisco attributes many life lessons learned to her
Roman Catholic church built, but unfinished, by architect
time spent in the restaurant business. “Everyone should
Antoni Gaudí. She described the reverence that the church
work in the service industry at some point,” she believes.
paid to nature, looking much like a garden. The site
It was through her restaurant experiences that she
provided an interesting intersection of her love for nature,
acquired a strong work ethic and developed an
religion, and history.
invaluable internal filter (you can’t always say what you
want). Even still today, when she conducts admissions
Continued on page 19
interviews for Vanderbilt University, she is particularly
Continued from page 17
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SEPT - OCT 2018
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HCBA LAWYER