Born in Philadelphia in 1955, Charles attended Northeast High School in Philadelphia, PA, graduating in 1972. He was active in Boy Scouts, achieving the highest honor of Eagle Scout at the age of 14. In 1977, he graduated, with honors, from Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting). Charles then attended Temple University School of Law and earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1980. After working at two different Philadelphia law firms from 1980 to 1987, he opened his own office. He has been a sole practitioner from April 15, 1987 to the present, He has tried jury trials in Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery, Lehigh and Camden counties as well as the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In 1993 he was admitted to the Million Dollar Advocates Forum for obtaining a jury verdict in excess of One Million Dollars on behalf of a client who had a hand sawed off while using a defectively designed meat cutting band saw while at work as a meat cutter for a local supermarket