Our Spotlight series highlights the careers and lives of tax professionals all over the world. This week’s Spotlight is on Lesley Adamo, a partner and vice chair of Lowenstein Sandler’s tax group in New York.
Adamo handles a variety of transactional tax matters, including corporate, partnership, and individual tax issues, as well as matters involving mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, fund formation, and tax issues specific to startup businesses. She is also a director and vice president of the New York Women’s Bar Association Foundation, which supports and funds charitable and philanthropic programs to aid women and children in Manhattan and beyond.
In her spare time, you’ll likely find Adamo spending time with her two young children, attending her book club, watching “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” or drinking “lattes on repeat.”
What’s your official title and what does it mean? Being partner and vice chair of the tax group at Lowenstein Sandler means that I get the chance to work on interesting issues for clients across all industries and the globe while also helping build a cohesive and comprehensive tax practice to service my colleagues’ practices.
Free time: book, audiobook, or podcast? I love to read. I am part of an amazing book club. We read books from different genres and always have interesting conversations (and great meals).
Tax is a huge subject. What’s your area of special interest? In sum, I help clients efficiently structure their business transactions. I particularly like working with startups and their founders. I also enjoy working on interesting derivative transactions and bankruptcy matters.
What’s the last movie or show that you watched and loved (DVD, Netflix, or in the theater)? I love “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” As I have two young children, I don’t watch too much TV, so the last show I likely watched and loved was a “Seinfeld” rerun.
What college did you attend and what did you study? I double majored in economics and psychology at Amherst College, where I was particularly interested in behavioral economics. I received my J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and my LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law.
Go-to pick-me-up: Coffee or tea? Coffee.
What’s the best tax or financial advice that anyone ever gave you? “Don’t let the tax tail wag the investment (or life) dog.” In other words, there are certain business (or lifestyle) considerations that are more important than minimizing taxes. (That being said, I do love minimizing taxes for my clients.)
If you weren’t working in the tax profession, what would your dream job be? Owning a neighborhood coffee and wine bar.
If you had the opportunity to make one change in the tax world—an extra credit, a disallowed deduction, whatever—what would it be? It would be to fully reinstate the state and local tax deduction.
Favorite food, snack, or candy during tax season or other busy time? Lattes on repeat.
What tax news or move made the most impact on your practice or clients this past year? We continue to see a lot of clients impacted by the limited SALT deduction and have been assisting with planning into the (still new-ish) pass-through entity tax regimes.
If you received a big tax refund check right now, what would you do with it? Invest!
You can find out more about Adamo on LinkedIn.
You can learn more about Adamo’s law firm, Lowenstein Sandler, on its website.
If you’d like to recommend a tax pro to be featured, send your suggestion to rbaker@bloombergindustry.com with the subject: Spotlight. Please include the following information: tax professional’s name, title, email address, and geographic area (city/state/country).
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