Photos From Rosemary Bond's 1998 Retirement Party

You might be surprised to learn that I have very few photographs of KL&Co. events.  But as it turns out, I actually had a few more than I had thought when I stumbled across photos from the 1998 retirement party for longtime KL&Co. administrative assistant Rosemary Bond, held at the Century Plaza Hotel.  As you can see it was a joyful event.

 Here's a picture from right before the party.

Moving on to the Century Plaza.

KL Legend Paul Kester Subject of Documentary

Paul Kester is the subject of a 16 minute documentary just released by the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum and put together by the students of Oakwood School.  The video may be found on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/439593538?fbclid=IwAR3TZapxBAcKI2HJdoZOe-g12Wk28zaVWgmGlWilkUxuz-yThIuHGTGgjUs

If you want to learn more about Paul's fascinating past, you have to read his 2013 autobiography Memories:  My Early Life in Germany and Sweden.  It still should be available on Amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/Memories-Early-Life-Germany-Sweden/dp/1304532895/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Paul+Kester&qid=1597951990&sr=8-1

Farewell To Century City

Just two weeks shy of 47 years later, I took my final files home from Century City after first having arrived as a brand spanking new employee of Kenneth Leventhal & Company.  It was Monday, August 13, 1973, and I had just finished taking the bar examination after graduating from UCLA Law School in June.  I had chosen Kenneth Leventhal & Company over the major CPA firms known back then as the Big 8, since redesignated as the Big 4 after mergers and the Arthur Anderson debacle, because the Kenneth Leventhal recruiter, Earl Streeter, had described the Kenneth Leventhal tax practice as more akin to a law firm or a corporate tax department.  As it turns out, Streeter's statement wasn't entirely true.  In fact it was probably hardly true at all.   But as things turned out, that was OK.  That first day was an extraordinary day, because it rained.  Not only does it never rain in Southern California, but in particular it never rains here in mid-August.  My mom told me that according to the Chinese, the rain on my first day of work was a good omen.  And she was right.

The Kenneth Leventhal & Company office was at 1800 Avenue of the Stars, part of the first set of identical buildings built in Century City on the southwest and southeast corners of Avenue of the Stars and Santa Monica Blvd.  As I sat in the waiting room when I arrived on my first day of work, I was surprised to see two long haired accountants walking in the corridor behind the reception area.  (I believed they turned out to be Bill Sparks and David Buelow.)  Back then accountants were as conservative as bankers and lawyers as far as attire and appearance were concerned.  I remember hearing the story of how a newly hired Big 8 accountant began work on his first engagement, and the first written review comment he received on his first write-up was "Get a haircut."  Our building, 1800, was also called "Gateway East", with the since demolished 1801 building on the other side of Avenue of the Stars, Gateway West.  I developed my routine of walking to lunch every day on the bridge that spanned Avenue of the Stars to the Century City Shopping Center, where I would usually eat at Clifton's Cafeteria.

Meanwhile on the next block south between Avenue of the Stars and Century Park East, construction was beginning on the massive triangular Twin Towers.  Kenneth Leventhal & Company signed a lease to move to the 17th Floor of the 2049 building, with the actual move orchestrated over Labor Day 1975 by Jack Rodman.  That space would be my home for the next 29 years, enduring numerous remodels to the buildings and surroundings. First was the enclosing of the previously open escalator from the garage into the building, and movie buffs may remember the fight scene between Shirley McLaine and Anne Bancroft in "The Turning Point" which was at the time an outdoor scene at the top of the escalator.  Later there were things like the building of ramps and glass elevator in the Plaza area, remodels to the interior lobby, expansion of the KL space to the 16th and 23rd floors, and the destruction of the ramps and glass elevator, among other changes.  And when Kenneth Leventhal & Company merged with Ernst & Young, they gave up their existing space near the shopping center to join us in the Twin Towers.

While the Century City Twin Towers have been a signature, prestigious office location for as long as most people could remember, it wasn't always that way.  When we moved into the Twin Towers in 1975 they were basically empty.  I don't think occupancy was even 25 percent and it was really strange to be working in what was essentially a ghost town, which made my last visit to the Twin Towers as a tenant ironic since it was equally devoid of people.  Apparently, to entice KL to lease space in the Twin Towers, part of the deal left the 16th floor vacant, with KL having the option to lease that space in the future.  Eventually we did expand to the 16th floor, but for a few years I found the vacant 16th floor space a welcome hideout where I could get work done and avoid ringing telephones and intercom calls. 

My Century City residency survived the Ernst & Young merger for nine years, until they closed the Century City office and moved all of us to what became Ernst & Young Plaza at 7th and Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles.  But the Century City connection wasn't entirely closed as Ernst & Young failed to persuade Stan Ross and Kenneth Leventhal to join the downtown move, even though there was an office with Stan's name on the door downtown, though he may have never set foot in it.  Since under the terms of the merger Messrs. Leventhal and Ross were entitled to Ernst & Young provided office space of their own choosing, they first continued to occupy the space on the 17th floor of the 2049 building until smaller quarters were rented on the 15th floor of the 2029 building.   And having the opportunity to visit that space from time to time, I was not completely separated from Century City.

After about five years, Ernst & Young sort of switched gears and opened up a "drop in" office in Century City for use by employees who needed temporary space in the West LA area.  This space was adjacent to, but not connected to the Leventhal/Ross offices in the 2029 building.  I made frequent use of this space, particularly during the chaotic period when the downtown office was being remodeled and I was temporarily placed in what I characterized as a broom closet.  However, hardly anybody else utilized the Century City drop in space because of one critical error.  Nobody thought about taking parking availability into account (or changing firm policy to permit reimbursement of office parking).  So unless someone was so familiar with the area to know where free parking was available like I was, or the other guy in the office who lived three blocks away, the Century City drop in office was hardly used by anyone else except for the occasional user who could charge the parking to a client.

Not surprisingly then, the Century City drop-in office lease was not renewed after its four or five year term.  By that time, I was shuttling enough between the Leventhal/Ross space and the drop-in space, such that I was graciously allowed by Stan Ross to move into his space when the drop-in space closed down.   Now I did a previous posting on this blog a year and a half ago that an era had ended with the closure of the Ernst & Young funded Leventhal/Ross office.  But that article also noted that there was last remaining remnant of the KL connection with the Stan Ross Family office on the 28th floor of the 2029 building, manned by two KL alums.  And even though I had retired by that time, I still kept some of my old files there and would occasionally visit the premises.  However with office availability iffy during the pandemic, it was time for me to take my files and bid goodbye to the offices of Century City today.

Kenneth Leventhal & Company Alumni Reunion - 2006

Thanks to Nancy LaBay for sending these photos.  Faces in the crowd include Stan Ross, Kenneth Leventhal, Bob Cohen, Bob Mayeri, Gabe Rothberg, Connie Lockhart, Naomi Takata, Anne Ferrante, Liang Wu, Alan Horwitz, Traude Valachi, Hugh Sills, Emery Kelemen, Dave Isaac, David R. Chan, Dave Robinson, Jim Decker and David Siegel.

25th Anniversary of Kenneth Leventhal & Company/Ernst & Young Merger

Earlier this week marked the 25th anniversary of the merger of Kenneth Leventhal & Company into Ernst & Young on June 1, 1995.  For those who were working at KL&Co. at the time it was terribly traumatic to learn first that our collegial organization was going to be merged into the much larger international CPA giant, as was the uncertainty as to what would happen to us individually and collectively.  As unique and successful as Kenneth Leventhal & Company was as a boutique CPA firm specializing in real estate, populated by a cast of incredible and brilliant characters from partner level all the way down to staff assistant and administrative personnel (even our washouts went on to have highly successful business careers), it was a transaction that had to happen because the world was changing.  As repeated in most every line of business and industry, consolidation was inevitable.  Kenneth Leventhal & Company did not have the resources to become a service provider who could serve multinational clients seamlessly around the world, nor did it have the resources to finance the technological explosion that would put a computer on every desk and complex technological systems that would revolutionize the practice of accounting.  Heck I remember when I started with KL&Co. there was just one electronic calculator in the entire Los Angeles office, which was so coveted that people had to sign up to use it.

Actually, the initial period of the merger turned out not to be traumatic at all.  That's because the merger was effectively two transactions in one.  Yes, giant EY did acquire the much smaller KL.  But within that merger we acquired EY's lesser real estate practice.  For example in Century City, the KL tax department had roughly 30 professionals, but we were joined by only a handful of EY real estate tax professionals, plus we stayed in our existing offices.  So it was just like KL hired a few more people. 

Most importantly, the newly christened EY Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate group was an independent business unit outside the overall framework of the Ernst & Young hierarchy, and life was little different from that at Kenneth Leventhal & Company.  Indeed, we all viewed the overall Ernst & Young organization as "them", compared to "us", with common references to "big EY" or "the other side."  We continued to have our own telephone and voice mail system, a fact not communicated to many people on the EY side who thought they were leaving messages for us, but which we never received.  This separate structure continued on for five years until Ernst & Young itself completely reorganized itself and the real estate group was integrated into the firm's various industry lines.

Things certainly did change after EY's reorganization, but the KL influence within EY remains strong to this day.  When Stan Ross retired as EY Global Real Estate leader, he was succeeded by KL alum Dale Ann Reiss.  When Dale retired she was replaced by KL alum Howard Roth.  When Howard retired he was replaced by KL alum Mark Grinis.  And many KL managers, seniors and staff assistants are still in leadership positions as partners at EY today.  So by that measure alone, the merger of KL into EY was a successful one.

And obviously the merger had a profound effect on me personally.  When I retired in late 2018 I had been with Ernst & Young for 23 years, slightly longer than my 22 years with Kenneth Leventhal & Company.  However none of you have any idea about the two most important impacts the merger had on me personally.

For one thing the merger almost killed me, literally.  In April, 1995 while the merger was being put together, I was assigned to do some due diligence related to the transaction.  Typically while working in the KL Century City office, I would drive the surface streets to my home in the Hollywood Hills, as this was the best rush hour alternative.  But one night while working on the merger I finished after rush hour ended, so I drove home the longer, but at that hour faster, way home, on the freeway through downtown and up the Hollywood Freeway.  As I was driving a few hundred feet before the Hollywood Blvd. exit a vehicle moved quickly across four lanes of traffic to exit at Sunset Blvd.  In the process he clipped my car, sending me crashing into a bulldozer parked off the side of the freeway.  Luckily I was driving a Volvo.  The Volvo died and I didn't, though I'm sure to this day the hit-and-run driver presumes he killed me.  I was conscious and tried to get out of the car but the driver side door would not open, but I did manage to exit on the passenger side door.  I wandered in a daze on the side of the freeway yelling for help.  A stranger ran up to me from the nearby street and asked if I had a cell phone.  He took the phone and called 911.   Sometime before the ambulance arrived I passed out as I don't remember the ambulance ride to Cedars Sinai.   But at some point the Good Samaritan took my cell phone and my wallet.   I was in the ICU for two days and recuperated for several weeks at home with six broken ribs and a smashed nose, but otherwise in good condition thanks to the Volvo.  And I'll always remember all of you who visited me in the hospital and conveyed good wishes during my recovery.

The other surprising impact (pun intended) of the merger is that it was the direct cause of my becoming a minor celebrity.  (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, check out this video which has had 700,000 views on various platforms.)   So how did the merger turn me into a food writer and personality?  Well, Kenneth Leventhal & Company was based in Los Angeles and I had an office based position, so my only travel was for firm meetings and training sessions.  If I taught a small training session it would be in the Century City conference room, or if attendees came from multiple offices someplace like Cal Poly Pomona.  Ernst & Young was based on the east coast and similar sessions would be in places like Washington DC or Atlanta.  The KL annual partner manager seminar would be held in places like San Diego and Palm Springs.  The equivalent EY event rotated among cities like Miami, Orlando, Chicago and Dallas.   KL firm meetings were always someplace in Southern California.  At EY they were all over the place.   Inasmuch as I had always searched for Chinese communities to visit and Chinese restaurants to eat at wherever I went, a whole new world opened up to me at EY.   This gave me a national perspective on Chinese food which few people could duplicate, and provided me the material to write well over a hundred articles over the years.  So what was a traumatic moment 25 years ago ended up shaping a secondary avocational career which I would never have dreamed of.

Nice Message From Paul Kester

Just received this message from Paul Kester. Paul currently lives in a high rise senior community on Wilshire Blvd.  His words are reassuring in these times of uncertainty, particularly for those living in retirement communities.

"I am ok, spending most of my time in my apartment. Meals are brought to me, the dining room is closed. No visitors allowed. Limited activities and contacts with other residents. I still can take walks, and I keep busy reading, watching old and new films on Netflix, cleaning out old files, etc. The phone and e-mail keep me in touch with family and friends. One would like to know for how many more weeks this will continue, but we hope not to get sick, and to resume a more normal life in the not too distant future! My best to you."