Welcome to the CPA Law Society of Ventura County

Nearly 200 members and guests attended The CPA/Law Society’s “Evening of Comedy: A Fundraiser to Benefit its Scholarship Program” in October. The comedy show featured Justice Arthur Gilbert and Ventura attorney Bill Paterson as emcees of the show; former attorney Jeff Kreisler, a Virginia Law School grad and lawyer and now NYC comedian; Atlanta accountant Mike O'Neill, winner of Accountants One’s 2006 Search for the South’s Funniest Accountant; and Cary Tobaben, owner of Comedy Esquire in Ventura. Bank of America, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, and Rabobank sponsored the event. Some excellent wineries, including Buttonwood, Cottonwood Canyon, Firestone, Zaca Mesa, and Old Creek Ranch donated the wine, and Firestone-Walker Fine Ales donated the ale for the event. Our first ever evening event raised thousands of dollars for our scholarship program.

Over 240 members and guests attended our Fifth Annual Scholarship Awards on November 30, our largest crowd ever. Huell Howser, producer and host of “California’s Gold” on PBS, and other fine programs, gave a positive, funny, and thought-provoking talk at the awards. He also personally met nearly everyone in attendance! It was truly a memorable experience. Huell’s participation came on the heels of a great talk by our prior keynote speaker, Mike Scioscia, Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and former Los Angeles Dodger. The CPA/Law Society matched contributions by its members and provided $50,000 in scholarships to students from California State University Channel Islands, University of California Santa Barbara, the Pepperdine University College of Law, and the Ventura College of Law. Each of the 16 student recipients received $2,500 scholarships, and two received $5,000. That brings our total to over $100,000 in scholarships in the first five years of the program! Thanks to our great event sponsors, including our three lead sponsors Bank of America, Rabobank and Wells Fargo, and many others, we were able to pay for the event while retaining funds for this year's scholarships. Please see our Fifth Annual Awards page for more information on the event.

In addition to getting together with colleagues and learning something new, our meetings always include the opportunity to win very nice gift certificates and prizes. In 2007, the CPA/Law Society gave away thousands of dollars in door prizes to its attendees. The prizes continue to get even better, as we gave away at least 10 iPod's in 2007, and many other cool prizes. For instance, we have given away gift certificates to Macaroni Grill, California Pizza Kitchen, 71 Palm, Jonathan's, Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cafe Zack, Capriccio's, BJ's, Pier 1, Green Thumb, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Borders, as well as many, many other fine establishments. Baskets n' Bows in Simi Valley has also been a sponsor for years, and provides monthly gift baskets for prizes.

We continue to have excellent and entertaining presentations on a variety of topics. Please see our calendar for more details. You can also view calendars for the past couple of years. We are planning our annual fundraiser symposium and expect another huge event for our Sixth Annual Scholarship Awards. We expect to award more than $50,000 in scholarships through our scholarship program in 2008.

We continue to participate in charitable activities in addition to the scholarships described above. We will donate $1,000 to the Ventura County Bar Association's Law Day 5K Run/Walk (benefiting the Volunteer Lawyers Services Program) again this year. In fact, we are one of the primary financial sponsors of that event each year. This is the 25th Anniversary of the VCBA’s Law Day 5K event. The CPA/Law Society is a committee of the Ventura County Bar Association.

Our annual membership fees did not increase in 2008, and remain extremely reasonable. Due to the number of requests, we continue to offer affiliate memberships. An application is available on this site. CPA/Law Society members receive a $10 discount per regular meeting, and larger discounts and reservation priority at special meetings. The discounts are valid at all chapters. If you are not interested in membership but would like to be added to our e-mail list for announcements of upcoming meetings, please e-mail Doug Kulper, and we will add your name to our e-mail list.

HISTORY OF THE CPA/LAW SOCIETY

In the early 1990's, the CPA/Law Forum of Ventura County met for breakfast meetings on a monthly basis at the former Oxnard Hilton. The organization was formerly a franchise of the CPA/Law Forum, and owned by a local financial planner. The morning meetings typically included 6 to 10 professionals, mostly financial planners, discussing various topics of interest. During the 1990's, the control of the organization and, therefore, its officers, were financial planners from the local branch of a national financial planning firm.

In approximately 1993, the group decided to move to lunch meetings, and began meeting at the old Doubletree Hotel in Ventura. The group soon relocated to Ottavio's Italian Restaurant in Camarillo. The group experimented with numerous luncheon sites including China Dynasty, Acapulco, and El Torito, among others. Although the move to lunch meetings met with some success, and the meetings grew in size to between 15 and 30 attendees on average, the group had little success attracting CPAs, an integral part of the organization.

During 1999, the forum, which was struggling financially and otherwise, went dormant for the final several months of the year. In January 2000, Doug Kulper assumed responsibility as President of the organization, and eventually all other duties for the organization. The meetings were immediately moved to the Tower Club in Oxnard. In mid-2001, the Tower Club could no longer accommodate the size of the monthly meetings, and the meetings were relocated to its present venue at The Pierpont Inn.

In January 2002, faced with increasing franchise fee demands, Doug severed all ties with the CPA/Law Forum organization and renamed the group. Since that time, he has focused his efforts on expanding the group to the East County and Santa Barbara, maintaining a strong membership group, compiling an e-mail list of members and potential attendees, increasing monthly attendance, maintaining pleasant monthly accommodations, all while attempting to continue the tradition of informative and interesting meetings and service to the professions. Because of the Society's financial success, it began offering joint scholarships with its members to local colleges in 2003. In three years, the CPA/Law Society has awarded $37,000 in scholarships, and expects to award another $30,000 in 2006 alone.

In an effort to broaden the scope of the group, and provide more access to the meetings, the CPA/Law Society began an East County Chapter in January 2004. Longtime member, Scott Hansen, of Bank of America Private Banking, organized and led this subchapter of the parent organization. In 2005, CPA Maryellen Sebold, of Hemming Morse, took over as Chairperson and moved the meetings to the Westlake Village Inn. She has done a tremendous job growing the membership in the East County. Please see the separate web pages with information on the East County Chapter and upcoming events.

In addition, the CPA/Law Society of Santa Barbara was formed and began to meet 2005 at the La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara. Doug Kulper asked CPA Danna McGrew of Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf to spearhead the effort. She was joined by attorney Carrie Giovine of Hatch & Parent, attorney Michael Fauver of the Buynak Law Corporation, and financial planner Jeffrey Forster of the Forster Group at Smith Barney. Carrie moved from the area in 2007, and Jill Smith from Hatch & Parent recently joined the Board in her place. Danna is heading up the chapter this year. The Santa Barbara Chapter continues to be very successful, and continues to grow.

Between the Ventura, Westlake Village, and Santa Barbara Chapters, we expect to offer more than 20 meetings in 2008, with over 20 hours of MCLE and CPE available. Participants will earn approximately 1,500 hours of credit this year. As you can see, we have grown considerably from those first breakfast meetings of 6 to 10 people!


		OVERVIEW OF THE CPA/LAW SOCIETY Our group continues to grow. Well over 1,000 professionals attended our meetings in Ventura and Westlake Village in 2007. In fact, we had well over 100 of you attend all but one of our meetings in Ventura last year. We continue to use our meeting site, "The Pierpont Inn" in Ventura, to accommodate our regular meetings, as well as the large Fundraiser and Scholarship Awards events. In addition, the East County (Westlake Village) Chapter, holds its meetings to the beautiful Westlake Village Inn. The East County Chapter continues to grow and expand our membership. Nearly 200 members and guests attended The CPA/Law Society’s “Evening of Comedy: A Fundraiser to Benefit its Scholarship Program” in October. The comedy show featured Justice Arthur Gilbert and Ventura attorney Bill Paterson as emcees of the show; former attorney Jeff Kreisler, a Virginia Law School grad and lawyer and now NYC comedian; Atlanta accountant Mike O'Neill, winner of Accountants One’s 2006 Search for the South’s Funniest Accountant; and Cary Tobaben, owner of Comedy Esquire in Ventura. Bank of America, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, and Rabobank sponsored the event. Some excellent wineries, including Buttonwood, Cottonwood Canyon, Firestone, Zaca Mesa, and Old Creek Ranch donated the wine, and Firestone-Walker Fine Ales donated the ale for the event. Our first ever evening event raised thousands of dollars for our scholarship program. Over 240 members and guests attended our Fifth Annual Scholarship Awards on November 30, our largest crowd ever. Huell Howser, producer and host of “California’s Gold” on PBS, and other fine programs, gave a positive, funny, and thought-provoking talk at the awards. He also personally met nearly everyone in attendance! It was truly a memorable experience. Huell’s participation came on the heels of a great talk by our prior keynote speaker, Mike Scioscia, Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and former Los Angeles Dodger. The CPA/Law Society matched contributions by its members and provided $50,000 in scholarships to students from California State University Channel Islands, University of California Santa Barbara, the Pepperdine University College of Law, and the Ventura College of Law. Each of the 16 student recipients received $2,500 scholarships, and two received $5,000. That brings our total to over $100,000 in scholarships in the first five years of the program! Thanks to our great event sponsors, including our three lead sponsors Bank of America, Rabobank and Wells Fargo, and many others, we were able to pay for the event while retaining funds for this year's scholarships. Please see our Fifth Annual Awards page for more information on the event. In addition to getting together with colleagues and learning something new, our meetings always include the opportunity to win very nice gift certificates and prizes. In 2007, the CPA/Law Society gave away thousands of dollars in door prizes to its attendees. The prizes continue to get even better, as we gave away at least 10 iPod's in 2007, and many other cool prizes. For instance, we have given away gift certificates to Macaroni Grill, California Pizza Kitchen, 71 Palm, Jonathan's, Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Cafe Zack, Capriccio's, BJ's, Pier 1, Green Thumb, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Borders, as well as many, many other fine establishments. Baskets n' Bows in Simi Valley has also been a sponsor for years, and provides monthly gift baskets for prizes. We continue to have excellent and entertaining presentations on a variety of topics. Please see our calendar for more details. You can also view calendars for the past couple of years. We are planning our annual fundraiser symposium and expect another huge event for our Sixth Annual Scholarship Awards. We expect to award more than $50,000 in scholarships through our scholarship program in 2008. We continue to participate in charitable activities in addition to the scholarships described above. We will donate $1,000 to the Ventura County Bar Association's Law Day 5K Run/Walk (benefiting the Volunteer Lawyers Services Program) again this year. In fact, we are one of the primary financial sponsors of that event each year. This is the 25th Anniversary of the VCBA’s Law Day 5K event. The CPA/Law Society is a committee of the Ventura County Bar Association. Our annual membership fees did not increase in 2008, and remain extremely reasonable. Due to the number of requests, we continue to offer affiliate memberships. An application is available on this site. CPA/Law Society members receive a $10 discount per regular meeting, and larger discounts and reservation priority at special meetings. The discounts are valid at all chapters. If you are not interested in membership but would like to be added to our e-mail list for announcements of upcoming meetings, please e-mail Doug Kulper, and we will add your name to our e-mail list. HISTORY OF THE CPA/LAW SOCIETY In the early 1990's, the CPA/Law Forum of Ventura County met for breakfast meetings on a monthly basis at the former Oxnard Hilton. The organization was formerly a franchise of the CPA/Law Forum, and owned by a local financial planner. The morning meetings typically included 6 to 10 professionals, mostly financial planners, discussing various topics of interest. During the 1990's, the control of the organization and, therefore, its officers, were financial planners from the local branch of a national financial planning firm. In approximately 1993, the group decided to move to lunch meetings, and began meeting at the old Doubletree Hotel in Ventura. The group soon relocated to Ottavio's Italian Restaurant in Camarillo. The group experimented with numerous luncheon sites including China Dynasty, Acapulco, and El Torito, among others. Although the move to lunch meetings met with some success, and the meetings grew in size to between 15 and 30 attendees on average, the group had little success attracting CPAs, an integral part of the organization. During 1999, the forum, which was struggling financially and otherwise, went dormant for the final several months of the year. In January 2000, Doug Kulper assumed responsibility as President of the organization, and eventually all other duties for the organization. The meetings were immediately moved to the Tower Club in Oxnard. In mid-2001, the Tower Club could no longer accommodate the size of the monthly meetings, and the meetings were relocated to its present venue at The Pierpont Inn. In January 2002, faced with increasing franchise fee demands, Doug severed all ties with the CPA/Law Forum organization and renamed the group. Since that time, he has focused his efforts on expanding the group to the East County and Santa Barbara, maintaining a strong membership group, compiling an e-mail list of members and potential attendees, increasing monthly attendance, maintaining pleasant monthly accommodations, all while attempting to continue the tradition of informative and interesting meetings and service to the professions. Because of the Society's financial success, it began offering joint scholarships with its members to local colleges in 2003. In three years, the CPA/Law Society has awarded $37,000 in scholarships, and expects to award another $30,000 in 2006 alone. In an effort to broaden the scope of the group, and provide more access to the meetings, the CPA/Law Society began an East County Chapter in January 2004. Longtime member, Scott Hansen, of Bank of America Private Banking, organized and led this subchapter of the parent organization. In 2005, CPA Maryellen Sebold, of Hemming Morse, took over as Chairperson and moved the meetings to the Westlake Village Inn. She has done a tremendous job growing the membership in the East County. Please see the separate web pages with information on the East County Chapter and upcoming events. In addition, the CPA/Law Society of Santa Barbara was formed and began to meet 2005 at the La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara. Doug Kulper asked CPA Danna McGrew of Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf to spearhead the effort. She was joined by attorney Carrie Giovine of Hatch & Parent, attorney Michael Fauver of the Buynak Law Corporation, and financial planner Jeffrey Forster of the Forster Group at Smith Barney. Carrie moved from the area in 2007, and Jill Smith from Hatch & Parent recently joined the Board in her place. Danna is heading up the chapter this year. The Santa Barbara Chapter continues to be very successful, and continues to grow. Between the Ventura, Westlake Village, and Santa Barbara Chapters, we expect to offer more than 20 meetings in 2008, with over 20 hours of MCLE and CPE available. Participants will earn approximately 1,500 hours of credit this year. As you can see, we have grown considerably from those first breakfast meetings of 6 to 10 people!