IFA / Federal Court – Panel Event

The Hon Lisa Hespe, Federal Court of Australia 

Justice Hespe was appointed to the Federal Court on 27 April 2022. 

Justice Hespe commenced her career at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons), where she specialised in income tax. From 2012, Justice Hespe was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. In 2017 she was appointed as a part-time Senior Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and was appointed as Senior Counsel in 2021. In 2023, Justice Hespe was appointed a Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. 

Nitin Gulati, Assistant Commissioner, ATO 

Nitin Gulati is an Assistant Commissioner in the Internationals and Private Business Structures divisions of the ATO’s Tax Counsel Network. Nitin worked on the appeal to the Full Federal Court and the special leave application to the High Court in the Glencore transfer pricing litigation and also co-authored the ATO’s Decision Impact Statement for that case. He is currently also involved in the ongoing Singtel and Mylan litigations. Prior to his role in TCN, Nitin was the Director of the Independent Review function in the ATO’s Review and Dispute Resolution area and also has a background in litigation. Apart from his litigation work, he regularly provides technical and strategic advice to ATO case teams on complex audits, rulings and objections that involve Part IVA, DPT and transfer pricing. 

Carmen McElwain, Partner, Minter Ellison 

Carmen leads Minter Ellison’s Tax Controversy team. She has over 25 years’ experience managing large and complex tax controversy matters at the risk review and audit stages and in the conduct of tax litigation. Carmen is responsible for the management and conduct of major tax litigation cases on behalf of the ATO and has been on the ATO’s Tax Technical panel of legal service providers since 2007. She also represents large corporates in their disputes against the ATO and applies her insights into ATO processes and decision making to design strategies for the effective management of clients’ tax dispute issues. 

Niv Tadmore, Partner, Jones Day (Chair) 

Niv Tadmore is a partner at Jones Day and leads the Australian tax practice of the firm. The key focus of the practice is the resolution of tax disputes, mainly acting for multinationals in respect of international tax and transfer pricing matters. Niv is President of the IFA Australian Branch and was the founding chair of the global IFA Supervisory Board. He is also a member of the Melbourne University Tax Advisory Board and the New York University International Tax Program Practice Council.