Full Name
Shirley Chin
Job Title
WRISE National Board Member & Senior Managing Director and Head of Tax Insurance,
Company
Wills Towers Watson
Speaker Bio
Shirley Chin is the Senior Managing Director and Head of Tax Insurance at Wills Towers Watson. She is a tax attorney with more than 25 years of legal experience in the private, public, government and non-profit sectors. Her in-house experience includes nine years as an energy tax lawyer, first as the Vice President of Tax at Sunrun, a publicly traded solar and storage developer, where she advised its C-Suite executives on the company’s tax strategies, including tax controversy, tax policy, project finance, and tax operations. Most recently, Shirley served as the General Counsel at Evergrow, a tax credit transfer platform, where she brokered and executed credit transfer transactions and established the due diligence policy and framework to facilitate the transfer process.
Before joining Sunrun, Shirley spent 10 years at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (Large Business & International), auditing, litigating, and advising audit teams regarding corporate, partnership, international and tax credit issues. She was appointed to litigate alongside the Department of Justice (Tax Division) as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and earned the Lucite award twice during her decade at the IRS, for successfully litigating cases with significant tax impact. She started her legal career at Davis Polk & Wardwell (NY & HK), where she rotated through its corporate practice groups (M&A, securities, and banking), before focusing on tax law at Adler & Colvin, advising tax exempt organizations.
She holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, an M.P.A. from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, a B.A. (magna cum laude) in Economics/Business and Political Science from UCLA, and an International Politics certificate from Peking University. She is a member of the New York and California State Bars. Prior to law school, Shirley earned her CPA as a tax accountant at PwC. She is currently serving on the Board of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE) and is a member of the Bay Area Asian American General Counsel (BAAAGC).
Before joining Sunrun, Shirley spent 10 years at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (Large Business & International), auditing, litigating, and advising audit teams regarding corporate, partnership, international and tax credit issues. She was appointed to litigate alongside the Department of Justice (Tax Division) as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and earned the Lucite award twice during her decade at the IRS, for successfully litigating cases with significant tax impact. She started her legal career at Davis Polk & Wardwell (NY & HK), where she rotated through its corporate practice groups (M&A, securities, and banking), before focusing on tax law at Adler & Colvin, advising tax exempt organizations.
She holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, an M.P.A. from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, a B.A. (magna cum laude) in Economics/Business and Political Science from UCLA, and an International Politics certificate from Peking University. She is a member of the New York and California State Bars. Prior to law school, Shirley earned her CPA as a tax accountant at PwC. She is currently serving on the Board of Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE) and is a member of the Bay Area Asian American General Counsel (BAAAGC).
