Tax Conference Speakers & Panelists
Jenny Alexander
Jenny specializes in the use of partnerships and limited liability companies in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, and restructurings. She returned to Deloitte after serving as an attorney advisor in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel at the US Department of the Treasury.
Jenny is the co-author of the WG&L Treatise Partnership Taxation. In addition, she has authored articles that have appeared in numerous professional publications, including Tax Notes, Journal of Taxation, TAXES, and Practising Law Institute. Jenny is a frequent lecturer on a variety of topics dealing with US federal income taxation, having spoken at many of the country’s leading tax conferences, including the Practising Law Institute, the Southern Federal Tax Institute, New York University’s Institute on Federal Taxation and Summer Institute on Federal Taxation, the American Bar Association Tax Section, and the Tax Executives Institute.
William Alexander
Bill Alexander focuses on the tax aspects of corporate transactions, including U.S. and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, corporate restructurings and other business transactions.
Before joining Skadden in 2015, Mr. Alexander served as Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) of the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Chief Counsel. He had been with the Office of Chief Counsel since 1990, serving as Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) since November 2001. In this role, he was the chief adviser to the IRS on interpretations of the corporate tax laws, such as provisions dealing with corporate mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, corporate-shareholder relationships, the use of corporate losses and consolidated returns of corporate groups. Mr. Alexander played a major role in the government’s development of published and private guidance, and in developing and implementing the IRS’ enforcement positions in these areas. Prior to joining the IRS, he worked in private practice in New York.
Mr. Alexander is a frequent speaker on corporate tax issues at bar association programs and other tax conferences. He is active in the Tax Sections of the American Bar Association, for which he is a former chair of the Corporate Tax Committee, and the NY State Bar Association, where he is a member of the Executive Committee and co-chair of the Consolidated Returns Committee. He is Co-Chair of the Practising Law Institute conference on Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions and Dispositions, and Co-Editor of the accompanying multi-volume Corporate Tax Practice Series.
Mr. Alexander is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York, and has a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, a law degree from Columbia Law School, and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law.
Chris Bowers
Chris Bowers advises clients on all aspects of international tax planning and controversy, representing many of the largest U.S. and international financial institutions, as well as large, multinational companies. He focuses on issues arising in cross-border financings, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and foreign tax credit planning.
Before joining Skadden in 2014, Mr. Bowers was a partner at another global law firm. Prior to that, he was a partner in the International Corporate Services Group at KPMG LLP’s Washington National Tax Office. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and the Hon. Pamela Ann Rymer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Bowers has been repeatedly listed as one of the country’s leading tax practitioners in Chambers USA and a leading tax advisor in the International Tax Review’s World Tax Guide. He also has been recognized as a leading lawyer by The Legal 500 and honored as Best Lawyers’ Washington, D.C. Tax Law Lawyer of the Year. Additionally, he is named as a top tax professional in Expert Guides’ Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers, Euromoney’s Best of the Best USA Expert Guide and The International Who’s Who of Corporate Tax Lawyers.
Mr. Bowers has co-authored numerous articles on a wide range of international topics that have been published in leading tax journals, including Tax Management International Journal, Tax Notes and Tax Notes International. He also served as an adjunct professor for international taxation at Georgetown University Law Center and as an adjunct professor of law for corporate taxation at the George Mason University School of Law.
Sarah Brodie
Sarah Brodie concentrates her practice on tax planning, with a particular focus on complex partnership tax issues. She advises financial institutions, private equity funds, utilities, energy companies, and other US and multinational businesses on domestic and international transactions. Sarah also advises on the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, internal restructurings, fund formations, and divestitures and represents clients in proceedings before the Internal Revenue Service.
Sarah also has an extensive background dealing with technical partnership tax issues and is a co-author of McKee, Nelson, Whitmire & Brodie: Federal Taxation of Partnerships and Partners (Thomson Reuters/Tax & Accounting, 5th ed. 2024). She drafts partnership agreements for all kinds of business arrangements and is a co-author of Whitmire, Nelson, McKee & Brodie: Structuring and Drafting Partnership and LLC Agreements (Thomson Reuters/WG&L, 4th ed. 2021).
Pamela Endreny
Pamela Lawrence Endreny is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Ms. Endreny represents clients in a broad range of tax matters. Her experience includes mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, joint ventures, financings and restructurings for public company and private equity clients. She has obtained private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service on tax-free spin-offs and other transactions.
Ms. Endreny is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section. She is also a member of the Tax Forum and Private Investment Fund Tax Forum.
Ms. Endreny earned her Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Brown University.
Rocco Femia
Rocco Femia represents large, multinational corporate clients in high-stakes U.S. international tax and transfer pricing planning, controversy, and policy matters. He is a former official at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and delegate to the OECD and brings this perspective to bear in advising clients. Mr. Femia has been recognized as one of the country's leading international tax practitioners by Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers® in America, among others, for over a decade. Mr. Femia was described by clients in Chambers USA as "a great lawyer, great on the transfer pricing side, and provid[ing] guidance and help with policy matters that is second to none." He was called a "superstar" by a market commentator in Chambers USA.
Mr. Femia's practice focuses on counseling and advocacy work on behalf of U.S. and foreign-based multinational enterprises across multiple industries. These projects typically involve complex, highly technical U.S. international tax, tax treaty, and transfer pricing issues often involving hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.
Mr. Femia counsels clients with respect to the implications of international tax developments and enforcement initiatives – including Pillar 2 minimum taxes being considered around the world – on cross-border supply chain, intangible holding, and financing structures. This work has included advice related to restructuring or other planning to avoid inappropriate results, and engagement with policymakers. Mr. Femia's transfer pricing work includes advisory work related to new business arrangements and transfers of intangible property, the negotiation of Advance Pricing Agreements with the IRS and other tax authorities, the resolution of disputes through the Competent Authority or MAP process, and the resolution of disputes with the IRS through the administrative Appeals process and litigation.
Mr. Femia has led large teams of attorneys and other professionals in executing these matters, drawing on a pool of talented personnel at Miller & Chevalier and working together with client resources to achieve remarkable results.
Larry Garrett
Larry is a member of the National Transaction Tax Group of Ernst & Young’s International Tax and Transaction Services service line. He has over 37 years of experience in transactional tax planning. Larry’s responsibilities include providing consultation, advice, and transactional planning on a firm-wide basis to clients, including financial and strategic buyers and sellers, regarding mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spin-offs, corporate restructurings, financings, cross-border transactions, and consolidated return issues.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Larry was a Participating Principal in another major accounting firm. Before that, Larry was an associate at the Washington office of an international law firm. In both capacities, Larry focused on the domestic and international tax aspects of business transactions.
From March 1990 to October 1992, Larry served as an Attorney-Advisor and as Associate Tax Legislative Counsel at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he was responsible for developing and drafting regulations, revenue rulings, and briefing materials on a number of corporate and acquisition-related issues, including limitations on losses and credits following stock ownership changes and the treatment of discharge of indebtedness income.
Larry is currently Second Vice Chair of the Tax Section, New York State Bar Association. He formerly was Co-Chair of the Committee on Spin-offs, the Committee on Corporations, the Committee on Consolidated Returns, the Committee on Reorganizations, and the Committee on Bankruptcy and Net Operating Losses. He also previously served as Chair of the Committee on Corporation Tax, Tax Section, District of Columbia Bar Association.
Larry graduated from Harvard College in 1982 and Harvard Law School in 1986. He is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bar Associations.
Karen Gilbreath Sowell
Karen Gilbreath Sowell is a principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department. Based in Washington, D.C., Karen is EY’s Global Transaction Advisory Leader.
Karen was the US Treasury’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy from July 2007 to January 2009. She worked closely with the leadership of the Treasury Department during the financial crisis. She participated in the legislative process for the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008, and played a leadership role in the expedited issuance of important guidance projects directed at economic stabilization. She was co-leader of the Treasury Department’s promulgation of standards for the executive compensation requirements of EESA. She received the Treasury Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her contributions.
Karen first served at the Treasury Department from 1997 to 2001, where she was Associate Tax Legislative Counsel. She was primarily responsible for matters relating to corporate taxation in a period of prolific guidance, including regulations and other guidance governing spin-off transactions, taxable transactions, and the check-the box regime.
Karen was Chair of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association in 2018 and Chair of the Corporations Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association in 2003. She is a Co-Chair of the Practising Law Institute conference on Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions and Dispositions, Co-Chair of the Practicing Law Institute conference on Cross-Border M&A Tax Planning, and a member of the Planning Committee of the University of Chicago Law School Tax Conference.
Joshua Holmes
Joshua M. Holmes is a partner at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he focuses on the tax aspects of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs and financial instruments. Mr. Holmes received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Economics from Stanford University, a J.D. from Stanford Law School and an LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law. Mr. Holmes is an active member of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association, in addition to being a member of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association, the USA branch of the International Fiscal Association, and the New York Committee of Realty Trust Tax Lawyers. He is a frequent lecturer and writer on federal income tax issues.
Gary Huffman
Gary Huffman’s practice focuses on domestic and international tax planning, tax transactions, and litigation, with an emphasis on partnerships, financial products and natural resources. For more than 30 years, Gary has advised major multinational corporations, including some of the world’s largest banks and oil and gas exploration and production companies, on inbound and outbound cross-border transactions. He has a depth of experience in handling the tax aspects of structuring and raising capital for master limited partnerships (MLPs). Gary has led major corporate acquisitions, dispositions, and spin-off transactions, and has structured countless strategic alliances and joint ventures around the globe.
Gary frequently resolves disputes for his clients before matters wind up in court. He shares his wisdom and strategies for success not only with clients, but with students at Georgetown University Law Center’s LLM program, where he has taught advanced partnership taxation for more than 20 years. Gary is also a regular speaker with the Practicing Law Institute, and has addressed audiences at the National Institute of Tax Professionals, the Tax Executives Institute, the Texas Federal Tax Institute, and the Southern Federal Tax Institute. Gary is a co-author of the treatise Federal Taxation of Partnerships and Partners (4th ed.).
Richard Husseini
Richard Husseini is a tax partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is one of the nation’s leading tax controversy and planning attorneys, representing private and public companies, partnerships, and high-net-worth individuals in complex tax matters. He is described as “bright and thoughtful; a very good litigator” (Chambers USA 2022) and as “exceedingly intelligent, strategic, creative, responsive, and humble” (Chambers USA 2017). Richard is recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States and Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.). “Richard can break down the difficult into the understandable” (Chambers USA 2023).
He has deep experience in every facet of the tax controversy practice. He has led matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in examination, fast-track mediation and appeals proceedings, and before courts and regulatory bodies, including the United States Tax Court, United States Court of Federal Claims, United States District Courts, state courts, and public utility commissions. He also represents companies and individuals in private-party M&A tax disputes before arbitrators and courts.
Richard also has an active federal transactional tax practice, with specific experience in tax issues affecting the energy, oil and gas, and electric and gas utility industries.
Richard has extensive knowledge of privilege and ethical issues affecting tax practice. He regularly counsels clients on their interactions with outside auditors, tax issues affecting financial disclosure issues, and tax investigations.
Following graduation from the University of Chicago Law School, Richard served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Quyen Huynh
Quyen Huynh, based in Orange County, CA, advises clients on a variety of international tax matters, including U.S. tax reform and the continued global reforms stemming from the OECD’s BEPS initiative. She also focuses on helping clients with inbound tax planning with respect to their operations and transactions, the interpretation and application of tax treaties, and matters with the U.S. Competent Authority’s office.
Prior to joining KPMG, Quyen served as the Deputy International Tax Counsel for Treaty Affairs in the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy. In that role, she was the lead attorney responsible for negotiating U.S. income tax treaties, tax information exchange agreements, and other international tax agreements (e.g., FATCA IGAs). She was also involved in the development and review of published guidance and provided policy and technical advice on proposals for U.S. tax reform. In addition, Quyen was a U.S. delegate to the OECD working parties focused on tax treaties, tax administration and exchange of information, and on the BEPS project to reform the international tax landscape to address the challenges arising from the digitalization of the global economy. Prior to working with the Office of Tax Policy, Quyen was a principal at another Big Four firm and senior counsel at the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (International).
Quyen is a frequent speaker on international tax and treaties and has served as an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She has an LLM degree in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, a JD degree from University of San Diego School of Law, and a bachelor's degree in geology and politics from Mount Holyoke College.
Kevin Jacobs
Kevin M. Jacobs is a Managing Director and the National Tax Office Practice Leader with Alvarez & Marsal Tax in Washington, D.C. He brings more than 15 years of experience in tax matters in both the public and the private sectors. Kevin focuses his practice on US and international tax matters and regularly advises US and non-US multinationals on domestic and international acquisitions, distressed tax issues, tax controversies, and tax return planning and review.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Jacobs was a Senior Technician Reviewer with the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) for more than six years, advising on tax issues such as tax attributes (earning and profits, recovery and allocation of stock basis, and section 108(b) attribute reduction), bankruptcies, corporate re-organizations and corporation-shareholder issues, liquidations, redemptions, spin-offs and consolidated returns.
At the IRS, Mr. Jacobs was the principal Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate) attorney on regulatory projects including the proposed section 382(h) regulations on built-in gains and losses, and debt-equity regulations. He made substantial contributions to numerous guidance projects, including the limitation on interest deductions regulations, and helped oversee the Corporate Division’s response to TCJA, including coordination with the Treasury Department’s Offices of Tax Legislative Counsel and International Tax Counsel.
Mr. Jacobs earned a bachelor's degree in accounting, a master’s degree in accounting (taxation concentration), a J.D. (magna cum laude) from the University of Florida and an LLM in taxation from New York University. He is admitted to the District of Columbia and Florida Bars and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Florida and Colorado. Mr. Jacobs is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the New York State Bar Association. He speaks frequently on attribute-related and corporate transaction tax matters.
Rachel Kleinberg
Rachel Kleinberg is co-leader of Sidley’s global Tax practice and the head of the firm’s West Coast tax practice. Her practice covers the U.S. federal tax aspects of a wide array of transactional matters, including M&A and private equity transactions, joint ventures, spinoffs and reorganizations, capital markets transactions, credit facilities, international tax matters and derivatives transactions.
Rachel has been ranked Band 1 of Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in Tax for Northern California. She is a former Council Director of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, a past chair of the Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, and is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Glen Kohl
Glen Arlen Kohl has been at DoorDash since April 2023. Before that, he was Head of Tax at Stripe, VP of Tax and Tax Policy at Amazon and SVP of Tax and Treasurer at Electronic Arts. Prior to EA, Glen was a partner at Cooley Godward LLP in Palo Alto, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and corporate tax matters. And before that, Glen was also SVP and General Counsel of PeoplePC. Glen was selected by the Clinton Administration to serve in the Treasury Department, first as tax legislative counsel and later as deputy assistant secretary for tax policy. Sandwiching his time at Treasury, Glen was also a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he worked from 1984 to 1993 and then from 1997-1998.
Glen received his B.S. in Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Tufts University in 1978. At Tufts, he was awarded the Ralph S. Kaye Memorial Prize in Mathematics. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Glen received his J.D. in 1981 from Yale Law School. He received his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law in 1983 and, more importantly, found his calling.
Glen was also an Acting Assistant Professor at New York University School of Law from 1983 to 1984 and lectured at Stanford University School of Law from 1990 to 1993. More recently (2022-2023), Glen was a lecturer at UCSD’s Rady School of Management. Glen also served a term as Co-Chair of the Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group and remains a proud member.
Pam Olson
Pam is a senior tax policy advisor to PwC and formerly was U.S. Deputy Tax Leader and Washington National Tax Services Leader of PwC.
Prior to joining PwC, Pam led the Washington tax practice at Skadden, Arps, and served as assistant secretary for tax policy at the US Department of the Treasury.
Pam has represented clients in a broad range of matters, including tax controversies, investigations, administrative and regulatory matters, transactional matters, and in the legislative process. She has advised clients on tax and social security reform and is a frequent speaker on tax, economic and federal budget matters. She has testified before several congressional committees, most recently before the Senate Finance Committee on international tax changes.
In 2000 to 2001, Pam was the first woman to serve as chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.
Pam received her B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Philippe Penelle
Philippe is a Ph.D. economist (University of Chicago) with 25 years of experience in performing economic analyses, transfer pricing analyses, and valuation of real and financial assets for tax and other purposes, including in controversy cases. Philippe specializes in the valuation of intellectual property, contingent and derivative contractual provisions involving nonlinear cashflow, licensed rights, and the valuation on non-earning producing intangible assets and rights. His experience spans various industries, including but not limited to the valuation of biotechnologies, software and cloud technologies, cryptocurrencies and crypto assets related technologies (blockchains, protocols, tokens, ICOs), and consumer products embedding valuable intangible assets and technologies.
Philippe has defended and represented a number of companies in large and high profile controversy cases. He was an economics expert witness for Apple, Inc. in its litigation against the European Commission (EC) in the largest tax case in history involving over USD 14.5 billion of “back taxes” deemed by the EC as illegal State Aid granted by Ireland to Apple, Inc. Although the 2020 European Union General Court’s judgment confirmed the EC’s right to investigate tax rulings under State Aid rules and the applicability of the arm’s length principle, it found that the Commission failed to demonstrate that a selective advantage had been granted to Apple, Inc. and vacated the EC’s decision.
Philippe spent 22 years of his career at Deloitte, serving in different capacities. He led the Washington National Tax Transfer Pricing Office of Deloitte until he retired from the firm in August 2020 after the COVID lockdown started. Philippe joined Kroll in 2021 after the COVID lockdown ended. Philippe served as the representative for the U.S. firm of Deloitte at the OECD during the BEPS years (2013-2017) and was invited to testify several times at the OECD Public Consultations held in Paris. He also served as a technical advisor to the U.S. delegation at the OECD (IRS and Treasury). Philippe served as the co-chair of the USCIB Tax Subcommittee on transfer pricing (2015-2020) under Bill Sample (Microsoft), and currently serves on the board of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) annual Transfer Pricing Symposium (2021-current) held in Washington, DC, and the largest transfer pricing conference in the United States. He has published extensively (over 50 publications), with a focus of his publications on innovative valuation methods and techniques, including the measurement of risks. He is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences, including at the OECD/USCIB International Tax Conference held annually in Washington, DC, and at tax meetings of the American Bar Association across the country.
Philippe holds a bachelor’s degree in economics (summa cum laude, valedictorian), a master’s degree in econometrics (summa cum laude, valedictorian), and a Ph.D. in economics with a specialization in mathematical economics (game theory and mathematical finance) under Professor Nancy Stokey. Prior to joining Deloitte in 1998, Philippe served as a lecturer (1991-1996), and as a tenure-track assistant professor of economics (1996-1998) at the University of Chicago where he taught mathematics, statistics, and economics. He served as an anonymous referee for Econometrica, one of the top five peer-reviewed technical academic journal in mathematical economics and econometrics.
David Schnabel
David is the head of the Tax practice at Davis Polk. He advises clients on a full range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spinoffs, financings, PIPEs, joint ventures and inversions. Clients also look to David for guidance on tax issues, strategy and the impact of potential tax-law changes.
David is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA, and Legal 500 U.S. includes him in its Hall of Fame for non-contentious tax work.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and a former chair of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association.
Jodi Schwartz
Jodi J. Schwartz is a partner at Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz where she is chair of the Firm’s tax department and focuses on the tax aspects of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs and financial instruments. Ms. Schwartz has been the principal tax lawyer on numerous domestic and cross-border transactions in a wide range of industries. She was elected partner in 1990.
Ms. Schwartz received her B.S. in Economics magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, her M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) in 1984, her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984 and her LL.M. in taxation from the New York University Law School in 1987.
Ms. Schwartz is recognized as one of the world’s leading lawyers in the field of taxation, including being selected by Chambers Global Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers, Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and as a tax expert by Euromoney Institutional Investor Expert Guides. In addition, she is a member of the Executive Committee and past chair of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association and also is a member of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Ms. Schwartz serves as an officer of the UJA-Federation of NY and Penn Hillel, serves as a member of the Executive Committee and boards of the Jewish Federations of North America, The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, The Gateway School and The Steep Rock Association and serves on the board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and on the Board of Advisors of the Penn Carey Law School and on the board of The Browning School.
Anthony Sexton
Anthony Sexton is a tax partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The principal focus of his practice is representing debtors, creditors, and potential investors in connection with all aspects of in- and out-of-court restructuring transactions, special situations and financings (including liability management transactions), the interpretation and application of tax sharing agreements, and other complex structuring issues.
Anthony is widely recognized as a leading practitioner on tax issues faced by distressed companies. He has obtained several novel private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service to optimize the tax outcomes for his restructuring clients, has been listed as a “Bankruptcy Tax Specialist in the Nation’s Major Law Firms” by Turnarounds & Workouts since 2018, has been listed as a leading lawyer and “noted for his tax work as it relates to bankruptcies and restructurings” since the 2022 edition of Chambers USA, and has been recognized by The Legal 500 United States.
Anthony frequently speaks at conferences, writes articles, and participates in the drafting of comment letters regarding tax matters that are relevant to distressed companies, and is an editor for Colliers on Bankruptcy Taxation. Additionally, he is currently a member of the Committee on Government Submissions of the ABA Tax Section, with responsibility for submissions made by the Corporate; Affiliated and Related Corporations; and Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts Committees, and was previously Chair of the Affiliated and Related Corporations Committee of the ABA Tax Section (2021–2022). He is also a member of the planning committee for the University of Chicago Federal Tax Conference, teaches a course on the taxation of bankrupt companies at the University of Chicago Law School, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois.
After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, Anthony clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Gretchen Sierra
Gretchen advises US and foreign-based multinationals on a broad range of international tax matters, including supply chain structuring, IP migrations, US income tax treaties, inbound planning, financing transactions, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and e-commerce transactions. In addition to client service, Gretchen was previously the managing principal of the International Tax Group and dean of the Deloitte Tax Inclusion Summit. She is also a member of the Deloitte Tax Cryptocurrency Working Group.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Gretchen was deputy international tax counsel in the Office of Tax Policy of the US Department of the Treasury. In that role, she had responsibility for a broad spectrum of US tax treaties and international tax regulatory and legislative matters, including contract manufacturing regulations. She was also previously legislation counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress.
Gretchen is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, an advisory committee member for the annual institute on current issues in International Tax at The George Washington University School of Law, and an advisory board member to the US Branch of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). She is a frequent speaker at national conferences including those sponsored by the International Fiscal Association, American Bar Association Tax Section, Practising Law Institute, and Organization for International Investment. She is also a co-author of the Bloomberg/BNA Tax Management Portfolio Outbound Tax Planning for US-Based Multinational Corporations, No. 6380.
Gretchen received her bachelor of arts in comparative literature from the University of Iowa and juris doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was the senior articles editor for the Iowa Law Review.
Eric Sloan
Eric Sloan is a partner in the New York and Washington D.C. offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a Co-Chair of the Firm’s Tax Practice Group. With more than 30 years of broad transactional and structuring experience, Mr. Sloan is a nationally recognized expert in private equity and partnership taxation, as well as on UP-C IPOs and tax receivable agreements. He advised on the first passthrough portfolio company investments made by four of the largest U.S. based private equity firms. Mr. Sloan has substantial experience in the formation of domestic and cross-border joint ventures and acquisitions and dispositions of businesses and interests in joint ventures. He also maintains a broad-based corporate tax practice, having advised on numerous spin-offs and other public and private mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs. In addition, Mr. Sloan is deeply experienced in obtaining private letter rulings and closing agreements from the Internal Revenue Service on novel and difficult issues on an expedited basis.
Mr. Sloan is ranked as a leading tax lawyer (Band 1) by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. The Best Lawyers in America® recognizes him for Tax and Who’s Who Legal also recognizes Mr. Sloan as an “Expert” in the area of Corporate Tax as well. Additionally, Mr. Sloan was featured in the Who’s Who Legal inaugural edition of Thought Leaders: USA 2023.
Mr. Sloan received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago and an LL.M. with distinction in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Sloan is a member of the District of Columbia bar and the New York bar.
Eric Solomon
Eric Solomon is a partner at Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chartered in Washington DC. He advises clients on a wide range of transactional, policy and controversy issues. He has more than 40 years of tax experience in private practice and government service. Before joining Ivins, he was a partner and then senior counsel at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, and before Steptoe he was co-director of Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department.
Eric served as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department from December 2006 to January 2009. As Assistant Secretary, he headed the Office of Tax Policy, which advises the Treasury Secretary on matters relating to domestic and international taxation. Eric joined the Office of Tax Policy in 1999. He served in both the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations. He was Senior Advisor for Policy, Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) and Deputy Assistant Secretary (Regulatory Affairs) prior to his 2006 Senate confirmation as Assistant Secretary. He led the Office of Tax Policy during the financial crisis in 2008. He has testified before Congress both as a government official and as a private citizen.
Eric has received numerous awards for his government service. In recognition of his contributions at the Treasury Department, Eric received the Alexander Hamilton Award, which is the highest award for Treasury service, and the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award. He has also received distinguished service awards from the Tax Foundation, the Tax Council Policy Institute, Tax Executives Institute, and the taxation sections of the State Bar of California, the State Bar of Texas, and the Federal Bar Association.
Eric served at the IRS from 1990 to 1996, where he was Assistant Chief Counsel (Corporate), heading the IRS Chief Counsel division responsible for corporate tax issues. From 1996 to 1999, he was a principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Mergers and Acquisitions group in Washington, DC. He began his career with law firms in New York City and was a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia.
Eric received his A.B. from Princeton University (Phi Beta Kappa), his J.D. from the University of Virginia and his LL.M. in taxation from New York University. He was Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation in 2018-2019, and was formerly a member of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association. He is the immediate past President of the American Tax Policy Institute. He is Co-Chair of the Practising Law Institute conference on Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions and Dispositions, and a past Chair of the Corporate Tax Committee of the ABA Tax Section.
Eric is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course in corporate taxation. He received the Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award for Georgetown University’s graduate law programs.
Genevieve Tokić
Genevieve Tokić is a Senior Lecturer at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Associate Director of the Northwestern Tax LL.M. Program. Professor Tokić teaches a variety of tax courses at Northwestern, including Taxation of Property Transactions and a seminar in Tax Treaties. Her research is focused on international taxation and she has published articles in a number of tax journals and law reviews. She is also a co-author of a popular international tax casebook.
Prior to joining the Northwestern faculty, Professor Tokić practiced in the National Tax Department of Ernst & Young LLP and in the tax group of McDermott Will & Emery’s Chicago office. Her practice focused on international tax planning and advising multinational corporations on cross-border transactions.
Professor Tokić is an active member of the American Bar Association Tax Section and serves as a member of the academic committee of the International Fiscal Association—USA Branch. She is a member of the Tannenwald Foundation Board and acts as Faculty Coordinator for the annual Tannenwald Student Writing Competition. She also serves as Faculty Editor of the Tax Lawyer, a peer-reviewed tax law journal published by the ABA Tax Section. In 2024, Professor Tokić was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Robert Wellen
Bob Wellen is a partner with Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chartered. He rejoined Ivins in the summer of 2023, after an eight-year stint as IRS Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate). Before joining IRS, Bob had practiced tax law in Washington, D.C., for more than 40 years, first with Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), then with Ivins.
Bob’s practice includes planning and negotiating corporate and joint venture transactions, representing taxpayers in administrative tax controversies and litigation, obtaining private letter rulings from IRS, and advocating tax policy positions before the Treasury Department and IRS. He has also served as arbitrator in tax-related disputes and as expert witness on business tax subjects. He is active in the American Bar Association Section of Taxation and the District of Columbia Bar Tax Community, and he is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Bob grew up in Jersey City, N.J. He has a B.A. from Yale College (1968), a J.D. from Yale Law School (1971), and an LL.M. (Taxation) from Georgetown University Law Center (1974). Before embarking on his tax law career, he served on active duty in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Naval Reserve, from 1971 until 1975.