Finding True Value
Liz Tylawsky has now officially risen to the top in two very different, very demanding fields: she’s a successful taxation and business valuation expert with Meyers, Harrison & Pia, LLC, in New Haven, Conn., specializing in “high-net-worth marital dissolution cases” – and she has been crowned World Champion at the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show.
Breaking from the pack: Upon completing law school in 2008 – just in time for the Great Recession – Tylawsky wondered, “What can I do to make myself more marketable?” She decided to augment her J.D. with a Master of Science in Accounting and Taxation, summa cum laude, from the University of Hartford. “It made me a lot more marketable than an LL.M. would have.”
Why tax? “If you’d asked me at the beginning of law school, I would have said, ‘Absolutely not, it sounds so boring.’ But Professor Santoro was awesome – very knowledgeable, lots of experience, great stories. He made the subject very interesting.”
Star power:Today, Tylawsky finds her work “unbelievably fascinating. We get a lot of very high-profile clients – celebrities, supermodels, hedge-fund types – which is fun. You talk to them on a regular basis and become really close; you get to see their whole lifestyle.”
Versatile degree: “Though I’m not actually practicing, my law degree is still very useful. We work with attorneys on a daily basis, and being able to communicate on the same level makes everyone’s job easier.”
Lifelong love of horses: “I’ve been riding and competing since I was six. It’s always been part of my life. I often say that’s the reason I went to school: so I could afford my horses!”
Back in the saddle:“The type of riding I do is called saddle seat. It’s a much more formal, high-stepping, showy style of riding with fancier horses.”
Where horses and taxes meet: “Horses are the one business where you can show a profit only two out of seven years, and take a loss for five years. In every other business, you have to show a profit two out of five years.”
Other interests? “I don’t have time for anything else! All I do is work and ride!”