With Eileen Marshall
Partner, Cooley LLP, Washington D.C.

Eileen Marshall’s practice at Cooley includes all aspects of domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, tax-free reorganizations, taxable and tax-free spinoffs, incorporations, and partnership formations. She also has significant experience advising on tax issues in connection with public and private equity and debt financings and restructurings.

Education

• Yale Law School, JD, 1996
• University of Pennsylvania, BA, 1989, summa cum laude

Rankings and Accolades

• Chambers USA: Tax – District of Columbia (2024)
• Legal 500 US: US Taxes: Non-Contentious (2023)
• Who’s Who Legal, Corporate Tax: Advisory (2022)
• Washington DC Super Lawyers (2012–2015)

With Francisco Garcia Jr. 
Attorney, Higgs Fletcher & Mack, San Diego CA

Francisco Garcia, Jr. assists clients in estate planning, estate and trust administration, charitable planning, and a variety of tax-related matters.
Mr. Garcia focuses his practice on the areas of estate planning and estate administration. Mr. Garcia advises individuals and families on all aspects of wealth planning, including general estate planning; business succession planning; advanced wealth transfer techniques, such as intentionally defective grantor trusts, intra-family installment sales, grantor retained annuity trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts; and the modification and reformation of trust agreements, both judicially and nonjudicially.

Mr. Garcia also counsels fiduciaries on estate and trust administration, including post-mortem tax planning and the preparation of estate and gift tax returns, as well as California fiduciary income taxation and tax compliance. Mr. Garcia regularly prepares and reviews gift and estate tax returns and has successfully resolved estate and gift tax audits and appeals.

Education

J.D., The University of Texas at Austin
B.A., Stanford University

With Christopher Cunningham
Partner, Elliot, Thomason & Gibson, Dallas TX

Christopher Cunningham handles a wide array of tax issues for a broad spectrum of clients at Elliot, Thomas & Gibson, from highly sophisticated international investment funds to family-owned businesses, to local schools and religious organizations. He has practiced in all areas of business tax law, from C-corporations to partnership taxation, from public and private M&A transactions, from tax exempt entities to multi-state tax planning. He has particular experience and expertise in like-kind exchanges and taxation of real estate investments.

Prior to his legal career, Mr. Cunningham was educated as a computer scientist and worked for a number of years as an engineer in telecommunications security. He continues to apply the same engineering based practical and results-oriented approach to client problems, for which he has received specific praise from clients.

Honors, Awards, and Distinctions:

Super Lawyers Rising Stars (2016, 2017)
D Magazine Best Lawyers in Dallas, Tax: General (2015)
Member, The College of the State Bar of Texas (2014-present)
Co-Chair, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Finance Committee (2014–present)
Sustaining Life Fellow, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation (2013–present)
Member, inaugural class of the State Bar of Texas Tax Section Leadership Academy (2012)
Co-Chair, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Solo and Small Firm Committee (2012 and 2013)

Education:

LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law, May 2007
J.D. with Honors from the University of Texas School of Law, May 2006
B.S. cum laude in Computer Science and Math from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, May 2000

With Mark Prater
Managing Director, Tax Policy Services, PwC US

Mark Prater is a Managing Director in the Tax Policy Services (TPS) group of PwC’s Washington National Tax Services (WNTS) practice. In his role, Mark advises clients with respect to tax policy issues and tax legislation with a concentration on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Prior to joining PwC Mark served as a Chief Tax Counsel and later a Deputy Staff Director on the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee. Mark was selected as Staff Director for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, (“JSCDR”) i.e. the Super Committee.

Mark Prater graduated from Portland State University with a B.S. in accounting and obtained a J.D. from Willamette University and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida.

With Phyllis Epstein
Partner, Epstein, Shapiro & Epstein, Philadelphia, PA

Phyllis Horn Epstein is a graduate of Temple University, and received both her J.D. and Master of Laws in Taxation from its School of Law. In 2013, Ms. Epstein was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. Ms. Epstein is the recipient of the 2014 Pennsylvania Bar Association Presidential Achievement Award for her service as Treasurer of the PBA from 2011–2014 for ensuring the best financial security for PBA members.

An active member of the American Bar Association Section on Taxation, Phyllis is a former Chair of the Individual and Family Tax Committee and a member of the Committee on Court Procedure. She has served on the Section’s Nominating Committee and as Editor of the Section Newsletter, a publication of updated tax information and tax matters which is distributed quarterly to the Section’s 25,000 members nationally. She is a member of the Publishing Board of the ABA Law Practice Management Division and Member of the Women’s Rainmakers Committee.

Ms. Epstein has authored numerous articles on tax and corporate matters for various legal publications which are posted below and is a co-author of the CCH Federal Income Tax Service recently included in its tax internet service provided to tax professionals. She has been a member of the faculty of continuing legal education programs on various tax matters and has appeared to speak at the ABA Tax Section Conferences, Smeal College of Business of the Pennsylvania State University, the Annual Statewide Pennsylvania Liaison Working Together Conference, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the National Business Institute, Young Lawyers’ Division of the American Bar Association, Amnesty International, the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association, the 13th Annual Conference of Feminist Law Professors, Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, and the Pennsylvania Bar Minority Bar Committee Conference.

In addition to serving on the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Board as Treasurer Ms. Epstein has been a member of the PBA’s House of Delegates and Nominating Committee. She has served as Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, Supervising Editor of the Commission’s publication, Voices and Views from 2004–11, and has served for many years as a member of the Commission’s Executive Council.

Phyllis serves as a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Working Together Conference Steering Committee, “A Joint Effort of Public & Private Tax Professionals” which “promotes the positive ongoing relationship between the tax practitioner community and two taxing agencies, the Internal Revenue Service and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.” Ms. Epstein has been a speaker at Working Together conferences which are co-sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service, PA department of Revenue, PA Institute of Certified Public Accountants, PA Society of Public Accountants, PA Society of Enrolled Agents, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Association, and PA National Association of Tax Professionals.

Phyllis is a participant in the IRS/Pennsylvania Practitioner Liaison with Senior IRS Stakeholder Outreach representatives for the advancement of practitioner systemic and procedural problem solving.

With Bahar Schippel and Tyler Eddington
Snell & Wilmer, Phoenix AZ

Bahar Schippel is a certified specialist in tax law with 25 years of experience advising clients across multiple industries through their most sophisticated tax issues and planning. She is also a leader and serves on the firm’s Expanded Executive Committee as well as a senior partner in the tax practice group.

Bahar is a practical and knowledgeable transactional tax lawyer. She specializes in tax planning for mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, real estate transactions such real estate joint venture agreements, drafting LLC and partnership agreements, tax planning in connection with fund formation and operations, structuring tax-efficient debt workouts, designing service provider equity compensation for LLCs and partnerships and representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.

Within the profession, Bahar has served several tax law-related organizations including currently serving as the president of the American College of Tax Counsel. She previously served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation and is a past vice chair (Pro Bono and Outreach) and is a past chair of the Section’s Partnership Committee. She is currently Bahar is also the past chair of the Tax Section of the State Bar of Arizona and is the past chair of the Arizona Tax Advisory Commission, which oversees the tax specialization program in Arizona. Bahar currently serves on the Board of the Tannenwald Foundation for Excellence in Tax Scholarships.

Bahar frequently speaks at national and regional tax conferences as well as contributes articles to top-tier tax publications. Prior to joining Snell & Wilmer, Bahar served as Attorney-Advisor for the United States Tax Court in Washington, DC, and as Teaching Assistant to the Honorable David Laro at Georgetown University Law Center.