Advisory Board

The Advisory Board provides guidance in our work to bring a public interest perspective and strong legal expertise to consequential tax policy decisions. The Advisory Board convenes periodically and offers input in areas relevant to their individual areas of expertise on an ad hoc basis. The Advisory Board does not determine the positions of the Tax Law Center nor is it responsible for work products from the Tax Law Center, and the Tax Law Center’s positions and work products may not reflect the views of Advisory Board members. 

Nadiya Beckwith-Stanley

Nadiya Beckwith-Stanley was most recently former special assistant to the president for budget and tax at the National Economic Council. Prior to that, she was a policy advisor on the Biden-Harris Transition and an associate in the tax group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Beckwith-Stanley also served as a clerk to Judge Ronald Buch of the U.S. Tax Court. She graduated from Pomona College and earned her law degree and LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

Jason Furman

Jason Furman is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Furman engages in public policy through research, writing and teaching in a wide range of areas including U.S. and international macroeconomics, fiscal policy, labor markets and competition policy. Previously Furman served eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as the 28th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017, acting as both President Obama’s chief economist and a member of the cabinet. In addition to articles in scholarly journals and periodicals, Furman is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Project Syndicate and the editor of two books on economic policy. Furman holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. 

William G. Gale

William G. Gale is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on tax policy, fiscal policy, pensions and saving behavior. He is co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He is also director of the Retirement Security Project. From 2006 to 2009, he served as vice president of Brookings and director of the Economic Studies Program. Prior to joining Brookings in 1992, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush. 

He is the author of Fiscal Therapy: Curing America’s Addiction to Debt and Investing in the Future (Oxford University Press, 2019) and co-editor of several books, including Wealth After Work: Innovative Reforms to Expand Retirement Security (Brookings, 2021), Automatic: Changing the Way America Saves (Brookings 2009); Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (Century Foundation, 2006); The Evolving Pension System: Trends, Effects, and Proposals for Reform (Brookings, 2005); Private Pensions and Public Policy (Brookings, 2004); Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation (Brookings, 2001), and Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax Reform (Brookings, 1996). His research has been published in several scholarly journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. In 2007, a paper he co-authored was awarded the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award Certificate of Excellence. He has testified in Congress more than 30 times and has written extensively in policy-related publications and newspapers, including op-eds in CNN, the Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. 
 
Gale serves on the editorial board of several academic journals, and has served on advisory boards for the Government Accountability Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Joint Committee on Taxation, and on the Board of the Center on Federal Financial Institutions. Gale attended Duke University and the London School of Economics and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1987. He lives in Washington, DC, is an avid tennis player, and is a person who stutters. He is the father of two grown children. 

Fred Goldberg

Fred Goldberg, former IRS chief counsel, IRS commissioner and Department of the Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy, advises clients on complex tax controversy and tax policy matters, including administrative, regulatory and legislative matters. He also serves as co-chair emeritus of Skadden’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, as well as of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. 

Tracy Gordon

Tracy Gordon is co-director and the acting Robert C. Pozen director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, where she researches and writes about fiscal challenges facing state and local governments, including budget trade-offs, intergovernmental relations, and long-term sustainability. Before joining Urban, Gordon was a senior economist with the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She was also a fellow at the Brookings Institution, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, and fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Gordon was a member of the District of Columbia Infrastructure Task Force and the District of Columbia Tax Revision Commission. She serves on the board of trustees for the American Tax Policy Institute and the California Budget and Policy Center. 

Gordon has written extensively on state and local government finances, including taxes, budgeting, intergovernmental relations, municipal debt, and pensions. She has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post and on C-SPAN, Fox Business News, and NPR. Gordon holds a PhD in public policy with a concurrent MA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Robert (Bob) Greenstein

Robert (Bob) Greenstein is a visiting fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is affiliated with The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative. He is the founder and President Emeritus of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He is considered an expert on the federal budget and a range of domestic policy issues, including programs and policies affecting low- and moderate-income families and individuals, and has written extensively on these issues. 

In 1996, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for making “the Center a model for a non–partisan research and policy organization.” In 2008, he received both the Heinz Award for Public Policy for his work to “improve the economic outlook of many of America’s poorer citizens” and the John W. Gardner Leadership Award, given annually by Independent Sector, which said, “Greenstein has played a defining role in how people think about critical budget and tax policies…. [and] help[ed] the nation address fiscal responsibility, reduce poverty, and expand opportunity.” In 2010, he received the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which cited him as “a champion of evidence-based policy whose work at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is respected on both sides of the aisle.”  He also serves as a member of the advisory committee for the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

Prior to founding the Center, Greenstein was Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Carter, where he directed the agency that operates the federal food assistance programs, such as the food stamp and school lunch programs, and helped design the landmark Food Stamp Act of 1977, generally regarded as the Carter Administration’s largest anti-poverty achievement. He was appointed by President Clinton in 1994 to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform and headed the part of President Obama’s transition team that dealt with the federal budget. He is a graduate of Harvard College and has received honorary doctorates from Tufts University, Occidental College, and Haverford College. 

Susan Morse

Susan Morse is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Angus G. Wynne, Sr. Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law 

Susan Morse joined the University of Texas law faculty in 2013. She studies and writes about  international tax policy, tax compliance and regulatory design. She is interested in the interaction between legal systems and private ordering.   

Morse submitted cowritten Ninth Circuit amicus briefs in 2016, 2018 and 2019 in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, supporting the government's position that it had validly issued a Treasury regulation that requires cost-sharing arrangements to include stock-based compensation. The Ninth Circuit held for the government and denied rehearing en banc, and the Supreme Court denied cert in 2020. Blog coverage here, here, here, here, here, and here.  

Professor Morse teaches Property and Federal Income Tax, as well as the Financial Methods for Lawyers course, which she pioneered at Texas Law. She won the Women's Law Caucus Teacher of the Year award in 2016 and 2020. She is a member of the American College of Tax Counsel and edits the tax section at JOTWELL.com.  

Professor Morse clerked for the Honorable Michael Boudin of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and spent seven years in business tax practice at Ropes & Gray, Boston and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto. Prior to joining the Texas faculty, she served as Associate Professor at UC Hastings College of the Law and as Research Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. 

Jose E. Murillo

Jose is a partner with Ernst & Young LLP (EY) and leader of the firm’s National Tax Department. He recently served as Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary for International Tax Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department and previously led the EY’s National Tax - International Tax and Transaction Services group based in Washington D.C.

During his most recent time at the U.S. Treasury Department, Jose provided advice and counsel on all aspects of international tax policy and guidance, including with respect to legislative proposals, income tax treaties and other international agreements. Earlier in his career, Jose served at the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the International Tax Counsel during the Bush-Cheney and Obama-Biden administrations. Prior to that, he spent 10 years in Ernst & Young LLP’s international tax groups in Houston and Washington, D.C.

Jose received his BBA in Accounting and his Master’s in Professional Accounting (Taxation) from The University of Texas at Austin.

Pam Olson

Pam Olson previously served as the US Deputy Tax Leader and Washington National Tax Services (WNTS) Practice Leader of PwC. In this role, she led a team of former senior government officials, policy advisers and prominent law-firm partners.   

Prior to joining PwC, Ms. Olson was Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the US Department of the Treasury and head of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Washington Tax Practice. She has represented clients in a broad range of matters—including IRS controversies; private-letter ruling requests and administrative guidance; and in Congressional investigations. She has advised clients on tax and Social Security reform, legislative matters and the structuring of transactions. Ms. Olson received her B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of Minnesota.  

Arvind Ravichandran

Arvind is a partner in Cravath’s Tax Department and advises clients on the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, joint ventures, strategic alliances, restructuring transactions and related financings, and private equity investments across multiple asset classes.  In addition, Arvind is a frequent speak and author on a variety of topics.  He has been published in the Harvard Law School Bankruptcy Roundtable, the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, Tax Notes and The Legal 500.  Mr. Ravichandran joined Cravath in 2015 and was elected a partner in 2021.  Prior to joining Cravath, he worked as an attorney in the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel. 

Leslie B. Samuels

Leslie B. Samuels’ practice focuses on international and domestic taxation, as well as related matters such as mergers and acquisitions, new financial products and foreign direct investment in the United States. 

Leslie lectures and is widely published on the various aspects of taxation law. He is distinguished internationally as one of the best tax lawyers by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, The Tax Directors Handbook, The Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers, The Best Lawyers in America, and The Legal 500. 

Leslie joined the firm in 1968 and became a partner in 1975. From 1993 to 1996 he served as Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy of the U.S. Treasury Department, and from 1994 to 1996 also served as Vice Chairman of the Committee of Fiscal Affairs in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.