Artificial intelligence has quickly grown more popular in many industries, including law and tax.  PwC and Allen & Overy recently partnered with AI start-up Harvey. AI presents an opportunity for legal professionals to reduce their time on routine tasks and become more productive in their advising roles. But what are the ethical and practical considerations surrounding AI? What are its downsides? And how extensively can legal professionals use AI, including in practicing tax law? 

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Cara Griffith
President and CEO, Tax Analysts

As the moderator for our Taxing Issues webinars, Cara objectively analyzes issues and asks probing questions that challenge panelists to explain and defend their positions.

When she’s not moderating Taxing Issues webinars, Cara provides strategic oversight for Tax Analysts. She has led efforts to improve the Tax Notes suite of products and to aggressively pursue transparency in the administration of tax systems. Previously, Cara managed the editorial department, including the flagship daily news publications and weekly magazines. She has written for a broad range of tax policy publications, including Tax Notes State, The Tax Adviser, The Hedge Fund Law Report, and The Hill. She regularly speaks at tax conferences and other events, discussing a variety of technical tax issues as well as the need for transparency in tax administration.

Cara has a BA in political science and a BA in international studies from the University of Evansville and a JD from the George Washington University Law School.

Sharda Cherwoo
Retired Partner, EY; Board Member, Tax Analysts; Start-up Mentor; Digital Transformation Leader

Sharda Cherwoo is a strategic global thinker, innovator and leader in digital transformation, M&A and integration, data analytics, technology, and business process improvement.

Sharda served as a senior partner at EY, where she worked for over 35 years across the audit, tax, management consulting, and transactions advisory practices. Sharda led the profit and loss, market growth strategy, and business transformation as director of tax operations for EY’s Americas region. As CEO of EY’s Global Shared Services and the architect of EY’s first offshoring strategy for client-facing operations, Sharda accelerated EY’s vision for the future of work and talent transformation

Sharda also led EY’s efforts in intelligent automation, pushing the firm to become an early adopter of cutting-edge technologies in digital transformation and AI. She received the 2017 Gold Stevie® Award for Innovation of the Year for her leadership and implementation of robotics at EY. Sharda is a member of the board of World Fuel Services Corporation, a Fortune 100 company (NYSE:INT), which provides an integrated platform for energy, logistics and related advisory services. She is also a member of the nonprofit International House Board of Trustees, whose mission is to train and empower the next generation of global leaders and foster cross-cultural understanding.

Caitlin Tharp
Associate, Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Caitlin Tharp's practice focuses on federal tax controversy and litigation matters, with experience in all stages of a tax dispute. Caitlin has litigated cases before the Tax Court, Court of Federal Claims, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and federal district courts across the country. Her experience includes examining witnesses at trial and at deposition, as well as authoring scores of motions and briefs. 

Caitlin has advised clients during Exam and advocated on behalf of clients at IRS Appeals. The subject areas of these disputes include challenges under the Administrative Procedure Act, the section 199 domestic production activities deduction, alternative energy tax credits, captive insurance, penalty abatement requests, and valuation questions.

Caitlin is a frequent speaker and writer on the intersection of tax and new technologies, focusing in particular on the application of existing tax rules to the metaverse. 

Mindy Herzfeld
Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Counsel for Potomac Law Group

Mindy Herzfeld is of counsel for the Taxation and Mergers and Acquisitions Practices at the Washington, DC office of Potomac Law.  

Ms. Herzfeld specializes in cross-border taxation, and has experience advising both public and private clients in complex international acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures. She also regularly consults with clients on international tax policy developments. 

Ms. Herzfeld is a Professor of Tax Practice at the University of Florida, Frederic G. Levin College of Law, where she teaches courses in tax policy and international taxation for LL.M students. Since 2014, she has been a Contributing Editor to Tax Notes International, a weekly magazine on tax developments published by Tax Analysts. In that capacity, she has written over 250 articles on international tax policy developments and cross-border transactions and has also written extensively on U.S. tax reform efforts.  She is the author of the bestselling introduction to the field, International Taxation in a Nutshell, 12th ed. (West 2020). 

Previously, Ms. Herzfeld worked at the national tax office and the New York office of a Big 4 accounting firm, where she provided transactional advice to U.S. and foreign multinational corporations, private equity funds, venture capital funds and individuals on a broad range of U.S. and cross-border tax issues.  She began her career in the New York office of a global law firm and has also worked as in-house tax counsel at a large automotive manufacturing company. 

Ms. Herzfeld received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center.