About Phil Hodgen

Phil Hodgen lives and works in Pasadena, California.  He has been doing international tax work since he graduated from UCLA law school in 1982.  He has been married to Mary Hodgen for almost 15 years, and has three children, 12, 10, and 8.  Phil received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Claremont McKenna College in 1979.  He was awarded a Master of Laws in Taxation degree from the University of San Diego in 1991.

Phil was born in New York City.  He decided to move his parents to California when he was two years old.  From age 7 to 12 his family lived in Africa–first in the bush in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and then in Somerset West, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.  He returned to California, and after graduating from high school he spent a year in New Zealand, working in a factory (where he cooked the corn kernels that eventually became Skippy Corn Flakes), then at Coronet Peak Ski Resort in Queenstown, where he was a chairlift operator, janitor, and generalissimo of dirty jobs.  He returned to California to attend college and has lived in Southern California ever since.

Within a few months after graduating from law school, Phil started working on international tax matters, and in fact still works with a nonresident family he started doing work for in 1983.  Over time he went from working at a small law firm to a larger law firm to the trust department of Security Pacific National Bank, then one of the largest banks in the United States.  When Security Pacific was acquired by Bank of America in early 1991, Phil’s unit was sold off and he faced one of those turning-point choices:  go work for one of the Big 4 accounting firms, or start his own practice.  He started Hodgen Law Group in March, 1991, specializing in tax matters.  Today, about 90% of Hodgen Law Group’s projects are international tax matters.

Over the years, Phil has been active in the California State Bar, in the Section of Taxation.  He has been chairman of the International Tax Committee and spent three years on the Executive Committee of the Section of Taxation.  Currently, Phil is on the Organizing Committee for the California Society of Certified Public Accountants’ annual International Tax Conference, as well as that organization’s flagship two-day annual Tax Update and Planning Conference.

Phil loves snow skiing with his family.  Unfortunately, two of his kids have chosen snowboarding over skiing, but they spend time on the slopes with him anyway.

Phil’s future goals are simple:  he loves international tax work and the people he works with.  It is interesting work and he gets to travel.  Phil is fortunate that he has found something he could do happily forever.  He has been a technology fiend since he was a 7th grader, when he got an amateur radio license (since expired).  But the keen interest in talking to people all over the world is now fully satisfied by the internet.  The equation he is working on now is (international tax law + internet) = fun.

If there is a communications technology on the planet, you can probably use it to contact Phil.  (And if there is something Phil doesn’t know about, he will be deeply embarrassed.)  Contact Phil on:

IM/Jabber – amnesty2009@hodgen.com
Skype – philiphodgen
Twitter – @philiphodgen
Friendfeed – philiphodgen
Mobile phone – +1 626 437 2500
Landline phone – +1 626 689 0060
Fax +1 626 577 2230

Phil had his very own telex in 1983.  (Does telex even work anymore?)