A FATHER'S INFLUENCE: From Career to Love, A Dad’s Impact is Priceless

This Father’s Day, we honor dads and the great influence that they can have on our lives.

But, is there something to that father-daughter bond? I can tell you for me, absolutely yes!

I feel my dad’s influence has helped shaped my personal success. As I look around me, there are others I know who feel the same way. A wonderful example of that is a woman I really admire, Hillsborough County Michelle Sisco. Judge Sisco is as amazing as a judge as her father, Paul Peden, is as a restaurant owner. She says it’s his influence that lead her to this incredible path.

It is an honor to “Share Their Story” for this special edition of the Trailblazer podcast.

Judge Michelle Sisco and Father Paul Peden join me on Trailblazer: The Sarina Fazan Podcast

History of my guests

Paul Peden was born in Ohio and raised in Venice, Florida. He was a great high school athlete, playing football and running track. He actually had a football scholarship to Florida State University in Tallahassee, but a terrible knee injury his senior year of high school resulted in the loss of that scholarship. He married his high school sweetheart and ended up playing football at Memphis State for a few years before transferring to the University of South Florida, where he received a business degree. While in Tampa, Paul worked as a waiter at Bern’s Steakhouse, his first restaurant job and the start of his career as a restaurateur.

While Paul did not have much restaurant experience, his wife had grown up in the industry. Her parents owned a popular steakhouse in Venice called Smitty’s.  The restaurant had humble beginnings, starting as a burger stand for the airmen stationed there in WWII. After his father-in-law died of lung cancer, Paul, who was just 21 at the time, stepped in to help run the restaurant. He went on to expand the family business, opening The Veranda restaurant in Fort Myers in 1978.

In 1981, the family moved to Tampa to open a second Veranda location on Kennedy Boulevard. Judge Sisco was still in school at the time, attending South Tampa’s Plant High School. She went on to graduate from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, before returning to Florida for law school at the University of Florida. Coincidentally, her father Paul originally had an interest in becoming a lawyer, before becoming a restauranteur. 

Judge Cisco returned to Tampa in 1991 to begin her legal career as an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County.  She left that position in 1998 to join the private law firm of Trombley & Hanes, where she handled white-collar criminal defense and civil law. In August 2002, she was appointed to the Hillsborough County Court by Gov. Bush, and she was elevated to the circuit court in 2005. Since then, she’s been re-elected without opposition.

The bigger trial, the better, says Judge Sisco. She has handled many high-profile cases in both the civil and criminal divisions. In fact, Judge Sisco handles all of the death penalty post-conviction motions, which include death warrants signed by the Governor when the execution date is set. She tried the cases of convicted murderers Bobbie Joe Long and Oscar Ray Bolin, the Kohut/Rourke case, and the Granville Ritchie death penalty case, which is currently awaiting sentencing.  

But it all comes back to family in the end. Judge Cisco married attorney Paul Sisco, and they are the proud parents of two children. She devotes her weekends to her kids, loves to travel, and, of course, enjoys eating out! Paul, who is now a doting grandfather, currently owns the Rib City franchise and the iconic Ft. Myers Veranda.

Judge Sisco as a child with her father at Walt Disney World