Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Cothroll.
Hi Keith, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I knew I wanted to be an attorney before I knew what an attorney was. In fact, I started writing loan agreements at age 11 and demand letters at age 8. My first demand letter was to Hasbro asking for a new Transformer to be sent to me or else I would tell all my friends in the second grade to stop buying Transformers. Six weeks later, I received a new Transformer with all of it’s accessories. The following year I got Coleco to reprint a mispelled adoption certificate for a Cabbage Patch doll.
Later on, I enjoyed mock trial in high school where I learned how to form an argument and present it to a judge. Another class that shaped me in college was Jurisprudence which was my first taste at law school and how those classes went.
Law school didn’t start off smooth for me, but I did finish and learned a lot at my first job at a general practice firm on the southwest side of town. My boss taught me how to prepare cases in a way that I still use twenty years later. I started tax in a large, now defunct, tax resolution firm and my tax mentor helped me understand the right way to handle tax clients. In 2018, I started my own practice in a corner cubicle at my friend’s probate firm. I have continued to grow each year and hope to bring in a partner in 2026.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I struggled academically early on and it didn’t really click for me until my sophmore year of high school when I was able to turn the corner and set my goal toward academic excellence as my tool to get into law school.
I had a rough start in law school too and did not do well my first semester, but my second semester on forward I was able to learn how to think like a lawyer and perform well in my classes.
I started my practice really because I had to. I applied at jobs all over the country and had an inheritance that I used to start my practice. It was a slow, but steady climb.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
My firm focuses on tax controversy at the property tax, state and federal levels. It’s easier for me to say to you if you receive an IRS letter send it to me and I will help vs. explain all the different letters that I can help with. I prefer and love IRS audits. They are my favorite! i like them because I like pushing back against the IRS and getting to the right number. I enjoy tax litigation too and it’s better than civil litigation because it’s more collaborative. I do not waste my time on frivilous arguments and only argue what my client is entitled to. There is a video out there on youtube under @houstontaxattorney showing me knocking out the IRS in the ring. That’s what I do. I knock our your IRS problems.
How do you define success?
Success isn’t the office or building I’m in or the dollar signs that are in my bank account. It’s the people. Helping people resolve tax problems so that they can sleep at night and attend to their work and families is what makes it matter to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cothlaw.com
- Instagram: houstontaxattorney
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/houstontaxattorney
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-cothroll-19174239/
- Youtube: @houstontaxattorney
