When Charles is working on a complex tax issue for a client, he typically positions himself next to his ‘old friend’ to dissect the problem and think up solutions. Solid, strong, always patient, and supportive his ‘old friend’ takes the form of a custom built desk. His father had the desk built 50 years ago when he was an executive at Pfizer. As an international executive for the company, he relocated on multiple occasions, the desk always in tow. Spain, Turkey, Egypt, and eight other countries were home to Charles and his family, and his father’s desk, throughout Charles’ childhood. When his father passed away, Charles inherited the desk, which now sits proudly in his office.
Charles alternated semesters between the University of Notre Dame Law School and the M.B.A. program at Columbia University in effort to develop an appreciation for international business like his dad. Before completing his joint degrees, Charles fully expected to be an international businessman who could not be bossed around by the lawyers and the bean counters. Somehow instead, he became an international and corporate tax attorney. And just like his father, Charles plans to keep his desk close to him throughout his travels. When he fondly remembers his father and the sojourns enjoyed as a young man watching him stand behind the desk, Charles likes to think about the “stories the desk would tell if it could speak.”
