Transcendent contributions.

• Author: McCormally, Timothy J.

In the late spring of 1988, I sat in the office of my boss, then-TEI Executive Director Tom Kerester, with Tom and the Institute's President, Larry Langdon of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter. Lato, had come to Washington for a variety of reasons, including to interview the two finalists for TEI's open Assistant Tax Counsel position. The purpose of the meeting in Tom's office was to select the person to whom TEI would extend an offer of employment.

As I recall, the discussion didn't take long. Larry looked at Toro and me and said, "One simple question: Which one's the smarter?" Tom and I looked at each other and responded in unison, "Mary Lou." There's a truism in management that you should hire people who are smarter than you (which often isn't difficult) and then "get out of the way" (which often may be), so they can make themselves--and you--look good. With two decades of hindsight, TEI's decision to hire Mary Lou Fahey twenty years ago could be Exhibit A in proving the wisdom of this axiom.

In truth, it wasn't a hard decision in 1988. Mary Lou's pedigree was substantial. She was graduated near the top of her class at American University's law school, spent four exemplary years litigating cases in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and then went to work at Covington & Burling, a top-flight D.C. law firm. She offered TEI everything we were looking for: a sharp analytical mind, excellent writing skills, unwavering principles, and calm and confidence under tire.

Mary Lou also offered us several things that we weren't specifically looking for: a good sense of humor, an unfailing memory of movies and songs, a whole-hearted commitment to collaboration and consensus -building, and a sense of compassion and caring that can only be born of faith and of challenges faced and overcome.

A reader of The Tax Executive need only look at the table of contents of the last few issues to see depth and breadth of Mary Lou's contributions as a key member of the Institute's legal staff. From cost sharing and the services regulations to contract manufacturing, from the IRS's recruitment and retention practices to the U.S.-Canada treaty, from the agendas and minutes for our government liaison meetings to stories about our educational programs, Mary Lou's handiwork can be seen. That's not all. As the Institute's chief legal officer, Mary Lou reviews all Institute contracts, is our contact person with IRS and D.C. tax officials when we ate audited...