Photo: Al and Barbi Agricola (1989)
Barbi Agricola was quite literally born to be an attorney. The youngest of three children, her father, Al, was serving as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama when she was a baby and, by the time she started school, he was serving as an Assistant US Attorney in President Ronald Reagan’s administration.
Education was emphasized in their household and spirited discussions around the dinner table were not only tolerated, but encouraged. Developing your ability to formulate a winning argument was just as much a part of growing up under the parenting of Bash and Al Agricola as watching Saturday morning cartoons or learning to ride a bike.
It was clear from an early age that Barbi was not only gifted academically but she was incredibly driven. She earned a place in the prestigious LAMP High School and went on to graduate with honors from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It seemed to be a logical next step when she chose to attend and succeed at the University of Alabama School of Law.
By the time she passed the Bar exam, her father was a well-known attorney in private practice and had represented Governors, Chief Justices and Senators. It would have been natural for her to join him in his already established practice but, in typical Barbi Agricola fashion, she struck out to establish her own reputation in the legal world.
By the time she opened Agricola Law, Barbi had earned the reputation of being a fearless advocate for her clients. Having succeeded in State and Federal courtrooms and in both civil and criminal cases, her reputation preceeded her when she opened the doors for the first time on South 8th Street in Opelika but those doors would also be where the typical daughter following in father’s footsteps story took a very different twist.
Rather than joining Al in his firm, Barbi persuaded her father to leave his private practice and to move to Opelika to join her, making Agricola Law a true family operated business but it is clear to anyone who walks through the doors, Barbi Agricola is the boss. Al works for her and the two of them make an outstanding team.