Remembering Sid Kess on His 100th Birthday
A reflection by Usman Mohammad.
When I joined the Kostelanetz firm in 2000, I was assigned an office right next to Boris’ office. Even though Boris was in his late 80s at the time, I remember him coming into the office nearly every day.
I also remember Boris being immaculately dressed in a suit and tie every time he was in the office, similar to how he always appeared in portraits around the New York office. Boris often shared his wisdom with attorneys at the firm, such as the importance of a lawyer’s zealous advocacy for clients while also maintaining the lawyer’s objectivity.
Although Boris was the founder of the firm and one of the luminaries of the tax bar, and I was just a kid out of law school, Boris was never intimidating but was instead always welcoming and kind. Boris loved to tell stories and to joke around. I still remember several of Boris’ stories to this day, including a humorous story about a client’s experience with divorce law in my native country of Pakistan. Because of that case, Boris knew the exact number of times that the word “talaq” (or divorce) had to be used to invoke a divorce over there (3 times). It was impressive to me that Boris was still able to recall such an otherwise trivial fact.
Boris continued coming into the office nearly every day, right up until the time that he eventually passed away in 2006 at the age of 94.
