Taxation
Remarks from Betty Williams in November 2023 in Introducing Carley Roberts, recipient of the Benjamin F. Miller Award
I first met Carley about 15 years ago when we were both involved with the Tax Section of the Sacramento County Bar Association. It didn’t take long for us to become friends once we realized we had interests in common beyond the world of tax, including doing home improvements. It’s always good to have a friend you can discuss tax topics with as well as air-nailers and tile saws!
Carley is one of the most intelligent, driven, thorough, and decisive people I know. She is also competitive – but we will get to that!
I dug up some details on how Carley became a tax attorney and has been so successful in her field. Carley first became interested in the law during a field trip her 11th grade government class took to the San Bernardino County Superior Court where her class watched various proceedings. Carley was immediately drawn to the advocacy elements of the profession and decided that day she wanted to be a lawyer.
During her second year of law school, Carley connected with the way constitutional law and tax law came together, and realized she could do both litigation and transactional work in this area of law. With an undergraduate degree in business and finance, tax was a natural fit.
Carley worked diligently and tirelessly to achieve her goal of successfully building a nationally recognized, premier SALT practice. She is a partner at Pillsbury, where she leads a team of 17 SALT lawyers located in five offices from California to New York.
Carley’s team is on the short list for every Fortune 100 company when it comes to SALT controversy and litigation, representing private clients and public corporations including Microsoft, Walmart, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson, Apple and more. In fact, Carley is representing Apple in its current constitutional challenge of Maryland’s Digital Advertising Gross Receipts Tax, which, as one Tax Court clerk stated recently, is an historical case that all eyes in the SALT community are watching.
It is no surprise Carley and her team handle these kinds of cases because of Carley’s dedication to the law, and to her clients. Carley spends hundreds and hundreds of hours each year speaking, writing, and spending time with clients and potential clients getting to know them and their industries to stay on the cutting edge of most challenging and important SALT issues.
When I asked Carley what she is most proud of professionally, she said it has been creating greater transparency between the California taxing authorities and taxpayers. Back in the late 1980s, the FTB began hosting the California Tax Policy Conference (CTPC), but for a variety of reasons, it had to be discontinued after 2002 which left a large void in the California tax community. As a young practitioner, the conference had a huge impact on Carley because of the collegiality it inspired between the government taxing authorities, and taxpayer representatives.
So, it became Carley’s mission in 2006 to resurrect the CTPC which she did with the help of Selvi Stanislaus (who had just become the Executive Officer at the FTB), and then-State Controller John Chaing. This revitalizing of the CTPC was key to achieving the level of transparency we have today versus 20 years ago – with interested parties’ meetings, access to administration, and hands-on taxpayer advocates.
I would need another hour to tell you about the various awards and accolades Carley has won, including being ranked in Chambers Band 1 for 15 years, which if you don’t know, isn’t something that is easy to achieve – even being ranked on Chambers is difficult because it is entirely initiated by client input.
Similarly, the list of volunteer roles in which Carley has served is endless, including serving on the three most prominent State Tax advisory Boards: Tax Notes State (Tax Analysts), Bloomberg Tax – State Tax, and the Hartman Forum.
Carley has won service awards as a tax attorney, as well as the Wiley W. Manual Award for pro bono legal services (12 years). Carley has done volunteer work on the reputable Innocence Project, and outside of the legal arena, she has visited orphanages in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and China and assisted with related aide efforts.
Carley has apparently always had an endless supply of energy. She raced motorcycles from the time she was 4 years old until she was 16, and today, she races cars! You will find her quite happy at track days at Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, or car week every year in Monterey. Her all-time favorite adrenaline rush is the annual hill climb in Virginia City!
I can tell you that riding with Carley is not for the feint of heart!
Carley also likes to do things close to home. For example, she grows tomatoes. A lot of people grow tomatoes. Carley grows 18 varieties! Of course she does! You don’t want to get me started on what she does for Halloween!
Carley is also a proud dog mamma – it is not uncommon to see her with Dolce on her arm, and at home, she has six additional dogs, cats, and horses, including three Clydesdales. But why just ride horses? Carley has operated a horse ranch for the last 20 years. She raised Quarter horses for 12 years and then Clydesdales, and was competitive in cutting, jumping, and three-day eventing.
Carley has earned the universal respect and admiration of her colleagues at the government and in the industry. I am fortunate to have Carley as my dear friend – she is truly extraordinary!