The
FIRST FILTER
That’s what Charles Schwab calls
his general counsel Carrie Dwyer
BY TIMOTHY HARPER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGORY COWLEY
DURING HER LAST YEAR OF COLLEGE AT
Santa Clara University, Carrie Dwyer was home for
the weekend, preparing dinner with her mother,
when the conversation turned to a familiar topic:
What exactly was Carrie going to do?
It was 1973. Her parents had long suggested
she would be a good administrative assistant—a
secretary. (Dwyer hated clerical work.) Her folks
said she could be a teacher. (Dwyer couldn’t see
herself working with young children.) For every
suggestion, Dwyer had an ironclad argument.
Her mother finally turned to her: “You like to
argue so much, why don’t you go to law school?”
For once, Dwyer had no comeback.
She would go on to a remarkable career at
government and stock exchange regulatory
agencies, at a major law firm and, ultimately,
arrive in the general counsel seat for Charles
Schwab. The financial services behemoth, with
nearly 14,000 employees and nearly $5 billion
in annual net revenue, provides brokerage,
banking and investment services to institutional
clients and millions of individuals.
