The first in the history of law
In 1998, after decades of public service and at age 59 when most men would be thinking about retiring, founding partner David G. Parent, Esq., fulfilled a life-long dream and started attending Quinnipiac University School of Law. At the time he was working as an accountant for the City of New Haven, and would drive to classes at night. After his classes, he would study until midnight. The next day he would wake up at 5 am to study again before work. And repeat. And repeat. If everything went as planned, in four years he would graduate in with a J.D. in May of 2002.
Watching this feat was David’s third child, Anthony E. Parent, Esq., who was working at the New Haven branch of Ford Motor Credit Finance Department. He could see that even though David was exhausted from the schedule, he was truly loving his law school experience. Anthony knew that even though he was very similar to his dad, he didn’t want to be hustling the way his father was at age 59. He decided that he too would go to law school.
The only school Anthony applied to was Quinnipiac. He was accepted and started class in August of 1999. IF everything went according to plan, we would graduate in May of 2002, the same day as his father.
Things worked out for the two, and, according to plan they both graduated on May 12, 2002.
Anthony reflects; “I didn’t realize how special it was; to me it was normal to go to law school with your dad. I did it for 3 years.
“I guess I realized it was special when at graduation, they stopped the hooding ceremony and brought my dad and I up on stage. Then simultaneously two tax professors, Mary Ferrari and Toni Robertson, placed the hoods on my dad and I. The crowd erupted in applause and cheers — I was not expecting that.
“They told us we were the first in the country to do this."
The union continues after law school
The two then passed the Connecticut bar exam and opened their practice in their hometown of Wallingford, Connecticut.
“I thought I would be a country lawyer,” said David. They soon realized they would need a specialty. David had successfully tackled two difficult classes in law school, ‘Securities Regulations & Federal Income Taxation.’ They found their niche.
The two starting practicing tax law and in 2006, Anthony realized the firm really needed a website. The trend, which still exists, is to call your website by your firm name. “That didn’t make sense to me”, says Anthony. I wanted it to have meaning.
“I remembered when my dad was younger, he was in the National Guard. He was a medic in the 142nd Medical Clearing company. When I was perhaps 8 or so, I recall asking him, “what does a medic do?”
He told me, “Son, a medic is someone who goes out on the battlefield and gets a soldier who is injured out of harm’s way immediately.”
I thought, "IRS + medic = irsmedic.com. To be honest, I wasn’t completely sold…I figured I’d eventually come up with something better."
Eleven years later, www.irsmedic.com is a nationally regarded website with millions of visitors finding answers and insights to complicated issues. Parent & Parent has world-wide client base and has helped thousands of taxpayers.The law office that David and Anthony started together continues to grow, from just the two of them in 2006 to 25 tax and accounting specialists today.
Anthony says, “My dad is the smartest, hardest working guy I know. I always knew that no matter what challenges were presented to us, together we could succeed. I can only hope when I am his age I have his energy and still possess the passion."
