THOMAS B. GARRETT has been a member of the California State Bar since 1978. He graduated cum laude from the University of California at Irvine with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1975. Mr. Garrett’s legal education was received at the University of San Diego where he graduated with the degree of Juris Doctor in 1978. He has received certification from the California Board of Legal Specialization as a certified probate, estate planning, and trust law specialist. He is also admitted to practice in the State of Colorado. He is the past chairman of the Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law Section of the Orange County Bar Association (1983) and is a member of the State Bar of California Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law Section. Mr. Garrett is the past President of the Orange Coast Estate Planning Council (1990), the past Commodore of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club (1999), a lecturer and author for, among others, the California Continuing Education of the Bar program, and the Rutter Group, and is a former grader for the California Bar Examination. Among Mr. Garrett’s articles are “To Disclose or Not to Disclose: That is the Question: Residential Real Property Disclosures in Trust and Estates Sales” – California Continuing Education of the Bar, Estate Planning & California Probate Reporter, April 2002 and “Divorce Complications in Estates and Estate Planning: Unraveling Common Provisions for the Former Spouse” – California Trusts & Estates Quarterly, Winter 2004.

VALERIE A. BOEMLER, CP graduated with honors from Saddleback College with an Associate of Arts degree. Ms. Boemler earned her Certified Paralegal designation in January of 2009 through the National Association of Legal Assistants and is one of only 1,580 certified paralegals in the state of California. She received her paralegal certificate from the California College of Paralegal Studies, Van Nuys, California in 1983 with a specialty in probate and in 1984 with a specialty in civil litigation.

KEALANI V. GARRETT graduated summa cum laude from Irvine Valley College in 2021 with an Associate of Science in Paralegal Studies and an Associate of Arts in Liberal Studies. Ms. Garrett also received her paralegal certificate from Irvine Valley College in 2021, and she is an Associate Member of the Orange County Paralegal Association. Inspired by her supervising paralegal, Valerie Boemler, Ms. Garrett plans on becoming a Certified Paralegal through the National Association of Legal Assistants.

Because Garrett & Company has a strong emphasis on tax and business matters, the Client Accounting Department of the firm was established to handle client tax and accounting matters in-house. The department is operated in the same manner as an independent certified public accounting firm, with the exception that the certified financial statement work cannot be rendered under the law firm name due to the restrictions upon lawyers or a firm holding themselves out as having other degrees or other professions, or rendering other services than as attorneys. The department can handle every other type of accounting and tax matter, including computerized bookkeeping and accounting and the preparation of individual, fiduciary, partnership and corporate income tax returns.

JAMES D. ANDERSON, who is a certified public accountant with six years of major national firm accounting experience, oversees the department. Mr. Anderson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Business Taxation from the University of Southern California. Mr. Anderson began his career at the Big Eight accounting firm of Ernst & Ernst in 1973 and in 1979, Mr. Anderson established his own accounting practice.

Mr. Anderson is a specialist in taxation. He has been an instructor in the Master of Business Taxation program at the University of Southern California. He has taught courses on individual taxation and the taxation of corporations and shareholders. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.