Shirley Chin
Head of Tax Insurance
WTW
Shirley Chin is the head of tax insurance at WTW, one of the largest and most experienced global insurance brokerages in the world, with roots dating back to 1828. She is a tax attorney with more than 25 years of legal experience in the private, public, government and nonprofit 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, storage and energy services company, where she advised its senior executives on the company's tax issues, including tax controversy, tax policy, project finance and tax operations. Specifically, she successfully led Sunrun’s federal, state and local tax controversy effort and was instrumental in identifying and working with industry trade groups and the solar industry to secure the passages of state and local laws favorable to the renewable sector. She worked strategically with its project finance team relating to the company’s tax equity financing transactions, and with its tax accounting team relating to its strategic tax planning. Most recently, Chin served as the general counsel at Evergrow, a platform start-up which aims to commoditize the market for tax credit transfers. Before joining Sunrun, Chin spent 10 years at the IRS Office of chief counsel (Large Business & International), auditing, litigating and advising on 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, 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 bachelor’s degree 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, Chin earned her CPA as a tax accountant at PwC. Chin has appeared before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Joint Committee on Taxation, U.S. Treasury and the IRS, presenting technical tax issues and comment letters to proposed regulations and guidance.
