Biography
Education? Of course. Economics (cum laude) from Claremont McKenna College, law degree from the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Master of Laws (taxation) from the University of San Diego School of Law. Experience? Yep. Admitted to the California Bar in 1982. Small boutique international tax law firm, then large-ish entertainment firm. Trust department of massive U.S. bank, then jettisoned when Bank of America bought it out. Rejected job offers from juggernaut tax factories and started my own firm in 1991 on minuscule severance package. Never looked back. Spent a chunk of my youth in the bush outside Bulawayo, an hour from the Botswana border. After that, a few years in Somerset West, outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Loved to go to Gordon’s Bay and poke around the docks and see the fishing boats. I still have a snoek horn around here somewhere. Spent a year abroad between high school and college. Worked at the SHF factory in Auckland making Skippy Cornflakes. Dug in frozen ground at Coronet Peak repairing, then running, chairlifts at the Queenstown Ski Resort. Realized that education is a Very Good Thing. Professional chops: past Chair of the International Tax Committee of the State Bar of California’s Tax Section. Member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of California’s Tax Section for 2004-2007. Organizing Committee of the California Society of CPAs’ first annual conference. Frequent, non-boring speaker at conferences and many other events. Always have multiple currencies in my wallet.
