Experience

Richard Chesnut attended Vanderbilt University, where he played baseball, served on the Honor Council, was president of his fraternity, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1972. Richard then attended the University of Alabama School of Law.

While in law school, Richard worked for Richard Shelby’s law practice and title company, Tuscaloosa Title. Upon Richard’s graduation from law school, Senator Shelby recommended Richard to Huntsville attorney Buck Watson. Watson hired Richard in 1975, and Richard has been a friend to Huntsville and North Alabama ever since.

In 1983, Richard and his friend and fellow Mayfair Park coach, Allen Brinkley, became law partners, where Richard established and grew a thriving real estate practice at Brinkley and Chesnut.

While Richard’s broad practice has included complex litigation — including an $8,250,000 verdict, then the largest ever awarded by a jury in Madison County, Alabama, that he and Mr. Brinkley won in Brian Ray Stewart v. ATEC Associates, Inc. — his mainstay is real estate transactional work and litigation.

Richard has represented regional builders, banks, and homeowners, and has closed thousands of commercial and residential real estate transactions. His practice has also included searching title and working for landmen in both Alabama and Mississippi to obtain mineral and mining rights.

During the Covid years, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company hired Richard as an underwriter, which allowed him to help attorneys in North Alabama resolve title issues while working from home to care for his ailing wife.

In 2024, Richard re-entered the practice of law with his son, Patrick. Recognizing a concerning trend in land-title practice, they started a title company to assist smaller law practices that have been pushed out of this area of the law by large corporate entities who, among other things, outsource title searches to artificial intelligence or to subcontractors in foreign countries with no access to archived books, plats, or records.

Richard and his late wife, Betty, who passed away in 2023, raised their two children, Patrick and Lauren (Lowe), in Huntsville. Richard is a member of First United Methodist Church and enjoys spending time with his six grandchildren: Betsy Lowe; and Caroline, Patrick, Anna Louise, Ruth, and James Ellis Chesnut. He also plays guitar for the Musgrove Sessions, whom you can catch at the Greene Street Market and around Huntsville.

Patrick Chesnut earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Vanderbilt University in 1998, and his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law. He is admitted to the Alabama State Bar and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

For six and a half years, Patrick served as Assistant District Attorney for Limestone County. He worked as an associate in a regional law firm for another six and a half years. He has also served as the Athens City Prosecutor, a specially appointed judge in Limestone County, County Conservator and County Administrator, and in-house counsel for Yellowhammer Brewery in Huntsville.

Patrick has successfully advocated for his clients in litigation and appellate matters against the City of Huntsville, the City of Athens, and the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System.

Patrick’s clients have included local banks, developers, builders, and property owners.

His practice also includes criminal defense, appellate work, including pursuing extraordinary writs of mandamus, prohibition, habeas corpus, and error coram nobis, as well as real estate closings and transactional work.

Patrick is also involved in the community. A former Rotarian, Patrick has coached about a dozen soccer, baseball, t-ball, and basketball teams. He has also been involved in promoting the performing arts in North Alabama. In and around Huntsville, he has promoted concerts by artists such as Jake Xerxes Fussell, The Deslondes (with Twain), Riley Downing, Rosali, William Tyler, Skywayman, Promised Land Sound, Teddy and the Rough Riders, Sean Thompson, Steelism, The Styrofoam Winos, Nick Woods, Paul Burch and the W.P.A. Ballclub, and the Treme Brass Band, among others.

He also coproduced a music video with Skywayman and the Athens High School Marching Band, as well as one with William Tyler and the Impossible Truth.

Patrick is a single father with five children.

Josie Robinson saw the law firsthand for nearly a decade, working alongside her father, a prominent criminal defense attorney in south Alabama, before serving as a law clerk for Circuit Judge James P. Smith in Madison County.

Robinson graduated cum laude from Mississippi College School of Law. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where her heart remains.

Robinson is married to a fellow lawyer who practices in Huntsville. She is active in several legal organizations, including the Madison County Bar Association.

She also maintains her own practice, the J. Robinson Law Firm, in Huntsville.

Breanna, a graduate of Buckhorn High School and a resident of New Market in northeast Madison County, is a dedicated paralegal who plays a key role in communicating with lenders, buyers, sellers, and realtors, and ensuring that deadlines are met efficiently.

She is committed to client service, maintaining confidentiality, and upholding the highest standard of professionalism. Breanna's reliability and thoroughness make her a valued member of the team.