Gary Talavera:  

I went to college because I wanted to be a part of the business world and was good at math. After 6 1/2 years (summer of 1991) I graduated with an accounting degree at a time when the big accounting firms were merging. My best friend at CSUN convinced me to take the Law School Admissions Test so we could apply to Law School and hopefully continue studying together. Well, he got into Harvard and I got into the University of San Diego. He graduated with honors and I graduated without honors in 1994. In Law School I realized I liked the challenges of interpreting the tax code. I knew I did not want to spend time in a courtroom, so I thought about being a corporate tax attorney or a tax attorney with a large CPA firm. I took an estate planning course in my second year and was convinced that it would suit my personality and skills. I spent the summer after my first year of law school in the study abroad program in Paris. That summer I met a couple who ran a dive shop in the south of France on the Mediterranean. They asked me to come back the following summer and work at their dive shop, so I did. I got certified as an advanced diver while working for them. After taking the bar exam I worked with my brother Dominic in construction. After passing the July 1994 bar exam I continued to work part time and also externed for a federal district court judge in downtown L.A. It took me about six to nine mon...Expand for more