13th Annual IRS Representation Conference 2026 (Presented by Tax Rep Network)

Robert Day is Of Counsel at Green & Sklarz LLC, where he focuses exclusively on state and local tax matters. With more than a decade of experience, he counsels individuals, tax-exempt organizations, small businesses, family enterprises, and Fortune 100 companies on state income, sales and use, gross receipts, and specialized Connecticut taxes. His clients span industries including manufacturing, broadcasting, and financial services, and he advises on compliance, planning, audit defense, domicile issues, and financial statement reporting. Robert earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Vermont and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is admitted to practice in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Eric L. Green is a Managing Partner at Green & Sklarz LLC, a boutique tax firm with offices in Connecticut and New York focused on civil and criminal taxpayer representation before the Department of Justice Tax Division, the Internal Revenue Service, and state Departments of Revenue Services. He is the founder of Tax Rep LLC — a coaching organization that helps accountants and attorneys build their own IRS representation practices — and the host of the widely followed weekly Tax Rep Network Podcast. Eric is the author of four practitioner-focused books: The Accountant’s Guide to IRS Collection, The Accountant’s Guide to Resolving Tax Debts, The Accountant’s Guide to Resolving Payroll Tax Debts, and The Insider’s Guide to Offers-in-Compromise. He has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Connecticut School of Law, was the author and lecturer of the UConn School of Business IRS Representation Certificate Program, and has served as a columnist for CCH’s Journal of Practice & Procedure. He is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and a frequent national speaker for organizations including the NAEA, NATP, ABA Tax Section, CCH, and the Connecticut Society of CPAs.

Dawn Brolin is the CEO of Powerful Accounting, Inc. and is known throughout the accounting profession as ‘The Designated Motivator for Accounting Professionals.’ A Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner based in Windham, Connecticut, Dawn has been a leading educator, motivator, and technology advocate in the accounting profession for more than two decades. She is a multiple-year recipient of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting, has been named one of CPA Practice Advisor’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting from 2012 through 2021, and is the author of The Designated Motivator and The Designated Motivator for Accounting Professionals. Dawn serves on the Intuit Tax Council, the ADP Advisory Board, the Avalara QuickBooks Advisory Board, and as President of the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation.

Christina Walker is an Enrolled Agent at Green & Sklarz LLC, where she works on IRS representation matters as part of the firm’s tax representation team. As an EA, she is a federally authorized tax practitioner empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the Internal Revenue Service — examination, collection, and appeals. Green & Sklarz is New England’s premier tax representation law firm, and Christina brings her EA credentials to bear in support of the firm’s civil and criminal tax controversy practice. (Additional biographical details were not publicly available at the time of publication.)

Jeffrey M. Sklarz is a Founding Partner of Green & Sklarz LLC, based in New Haven, Connecticut. Jeff’s practice is focused on representing businesses and individuals with complex financial litigation needs, including bankruptcy and bankruptcy litigation, creditor/debtor litigation, tax litigation, and commercial litigation. He regularly tries cases and appeals before Connecticut’s state and federal courts and has particular experience regarding the interplay between bankruptcy and tax law. He typically serves as counsel to clients experiencing a wide array of financial challenges, often involving “bet the company” matters.

Amanda Evans is an Enrolled Agent and paralegal at Green & Sklarz LLC, where she assists in both the tax representation and bankruptcy practice groups. A 2006 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Amanda brings nearly eight years of prior experience working for the Connecticut Bar Association — where she coordinated educational seminars for attorneys statewide and managed the CBA’s attorney board certification program — to her role at Green & Sklarz. She is currently Secretary of the Connecticut Society of Enrolled Agents and an associate member of the Connecticut Bar Association. Amanda has been a frequent presenter at the Annual New England IRS Representation Conference, covering topics including innocent spouse representation, offers-in-compromise, installment agreements, hobby loss exams, IRS collection, tax liens, and tax levies.

Lisa E. Perkins is an attorney at Green & Sklarz LLC and an Assistant Clinical Professor and Associate Director of the Tax Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law. She joined the firm after more than 17 years with the U.S. Department of Justice — including five years as a trial attorney in the DOJ Tax Division’s Western Criminal Enforcement Section, where she prosecuted tax crimes across the western United States, and more than a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Hartford handling civil and criminal federal litigation. Lisa is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and holds a B.A. and J.D. from Michigan State University, and an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Michelle Ferreira is Executive Vice President, Co-Chair of the Global Tax Practice, and Managing Shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Silicon Valley office, practicing from the firm’s San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. She advises individuals, partnerships, estates, and corporations in complex tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service and state and local tax authorities, including the California Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the Employment Development Department, and county assessment appeals boards. Drawing on her prior experience as a tax litigator with the IRS, Michelle brings a distinctive and strategic perspective to sensitive and high-stakes tax and penalty matters, representing clients at every stage of a tax controversy—audits, collections, appeals, and litigation—before the IRS and state and local taxing authorities. She has 23 reported decisions in the U.S. Tax Court addressing a wide range of sophisticated tax issues, and is a member of the firm’s Tariff Task Force.

Sanford “Sandy” J. Boxerman is a Shareholder at Neill Schwerin Boxerman, P.C. in St. Louis. Sandy defends individuals and corporations in white-collar investigations and prosecutions, represents taxpayers in civil and criminal tax matters, and advises participants (and would-be participants) in the digital assets space. From 1991 to 1994, he served as an assistant public defender in the City of St. Louis, where he first-chaired numerous jury and bench trials, including two jury trials in one week. In addition to his active law practice, Sandy teaches the tax fraud prosecutions course in the graduate tax program at the Washington University School of Law, and for many years taught the Legal Environment of Business course at the Washington University Olin Business School.

Maxine Aaronson is a Dallas-based tax attorney and mediator with more than 40 years of experience representing closely held businesses, their owners, and executives on the full spectrum of federal and state tax matters. She is Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. She is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, currently serving as 5th Circuit Regent on the ACTC Board of Directors, and chairs the Tax and ADR Committee of the ABA’s Section of Dispute Resolution. She earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Education and English from an undergraduate institution, followed by her J.D. (Order of the Coif, 1980) from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where she was an editor of the Southwestern Law Journal. Maxine has been selected to Texas Super Lawyers multiple times and is widely recognized as a leading practitioner and mediator in the tax law community.

Dan Mayo is a Partner at Withum and leads the firm’s National Tax Services practice. He brings more than 25 years of professional tax experience in federal, international, and financial products taxation, with particular expertise in QSBS, the Employee Retention Credit, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, and cross-border matters. He also represents individuals and businesses in tax controversies with the IRS and serves as an expert witness in tax-related litigation. Dan is an adjunct tax professor at Georgetown University Law Center, a FINRA-approved arbitrator, and a Forbes contributor covering all things tax. He holds a J.D., cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law, an LL.M. in Tax from NYU School of Law, and a B.S. from Rutgers College. Prior to Withum, he gained experience at large law firms, KPMG, and as in-house tax counsel at Citigroup and Barclays/Lehman Brothers.

Christopher M. Ferguson is a Partner at Kostelanetz LLP, based in New York City, with over two decades of experience as a litigator. He concentrates his practice on white-collar criminal defense as well as civil and criminal tax controversies and other regulatory enforcement matters and also has extensive experience handling complex civil litigation and internal investigations. Chris represents clients in both federal and state courts, as well as before governmental agencies and other regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Department of Labor, the New York City Department of Investigations, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He has defended clients in federal and state investigations and prosecutions involving allegations of tax fraud, securities fraud, criminal anti-trust violations (bid rigging and price fixing, including in the foreign exchange market), Bank Secrecy Act violations, mail and wire fraud, CARES Act fraud, prevailing wage fraud, theft of government services, fraud related to state and local Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) programs, and other violations of federal and state law. He also conducts internal investigations for institutional clients whose officers or employees have been suspected or accused of wrongdoing.

James R. Grimaldi is a Tax Partner at Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC with more than 30 years of experience in strategic tax planning, research, and compliance. He serves clients in a wide range of industries — including real estate, manufacturing, family offices, and not-for-profits — and is a member of the firm’s Trust and Estate Practice, where he helps individuals and families preserve and grow wealth through tax-efficient strategies. Jim is a member of the Tax Quality Control Committee, the Not-for-Profit Committee, and serves as chair of the firm’s Education Committee. He is admitted to the New York State Bar, U.S. Tax Court, and the Southern and Northern District Courts, and earned his B.S. in Accounting from Fordham University and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. In 2002, the Department of the Treasury appointed him to the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel. He received the Max Block Distinguished Article Award, Honorable Mention, from the CPA Journal.

Jennifer (Jenni) Black is a Managing Director in Citrin Cooperman’s National Tax Office, where she leads the Tax Procedure & Controversy practice. She brings more than two decades of combined legal and accounting experience to her role, with deep expertise in partnership audit procedures under both TEFRA and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. Prior to joining Citrin Cooperman, Jenni served for 12 years as Senior Counsel in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel’s Procedure and Administration Division, where she was a principal author of the BBA regulations and played a central role in designing the forms and procedures for the BBA’s implementation. She earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Richmond School of Law and an LL.M. in Taxation with Distinction from Georgetown University Law Center, and holds a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from the University of South Carolina.

Andy Weiner is Counsel with Kostelanetz LLP, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He focuses on tax controversies, both civil and criminal, in trial and appellate courts and at the agency level. A Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, Andy is a frequent writer and speaker on tax issues. He has handled a wide diversity of matters in areas such as partnership taxation, corporate taxation and reorganizations, taxation of S corporations, tax accounting methods, income tax, gift and estate taxes, and collections, combining a deep knowledge of tax law with extensive litigation and administrative practice experience.

Beverly Winstead is the founder and a tax attorney at the Law Offices of Beverly Winstead, LLC, a tax resolution law firm with offices in Baltimore and Laurel, Maryland. Being an attorney has given Beverly the opportunity to change many of her clients’ lives for the better by solving their personal and business tax issues. From negotiating settlements with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that are comfortable for clients to getting the IRS to release a lien or levy, the favorite part of her tax practice has always been the peace she gives clients when she tells them that their debt has been significantly reduced or their tax issues have been resolved. The Law Offices of Beverly Winstead, LLC is affiliated with the accounting firm Winstead Tax Group, LLC.

Roger Nemeth is the Enrolled Agent and founder of Tax Help Software (also known as Audit Detective), the company he created in 2009 after developing the first IRS transcript report processor — a tool that has since processed over one billion IRS transcripts and revolutionized how tax professionals access and analyze taxpayer account data. Roger began his career as a sheriff’s deputy in Leon County, Florida (Tallahassee), was injured in the line of duty — receiving the Medal of Valor and Purple Heart from the Florida Sheriff’s Association — and transitioned to tax practice, managing a Jackson Hewitt franchise before teaching himself to code and writing the 60,000 lines of code that became Tax Help Software. He earned his B.S. from Florida State University, his EA credential in 2011, and holds the NTPI Fellow designation. He is a nationally recognized speaker on tax industry best practices and has provided over 150,000 hours of CE/CPE through NAEA, NATP, CSEA, ASTPS, and Latino Tax Pro.

Darren Guillot is a National Director at alliantgroup, based in Houston, and a former IRS Commissioner of the Small Business/Self-Employed (SBSE) Division. As an alliantgroup trusted tax advisor and consultant, Mr. Guillot assists small and medium-sized businesses in navigating America’s tax system to secure incentives and credits that stimulate innovation and improve products and services. He also serves them as an expert resource resolving complex compliance and appellate controversies.

R. Damon Rowe is a partner at Meadows, Collier, Reed, Cousins, Crouch & Ungerman LLP in Dallas, where his practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, federal tax disputes, governmental regulatory litigation, and cryptocurrency and digital assets matters. Before entering private practice in 2022, Damon completed a distinguished 24-year career at the IRS, where he rose from Special Agent to Executive Director of the Office of Fraud Enforcement — the IRS’s primary mechanism for coordinating fraud detection and deterrence across all business divisions. He also served as Special Agent in Charge of both the Los Angeles and Dallas Field Offices and as Executive Director of International Operations in IRS Criminal Investigation. He earned his J.D. from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, his LL.M. in Taxation from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston. He is an adjunct professor at Texas A&M University School of Law.

Kathy Enstrom is the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Investigations for the Moore Tax Law Group, based in Chicago, and a former Executive within Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI). Having spent nearly 28 years in federal law enforcement, Ms. Enstrom has expertise in financial crimes, specifically income and employment tax evasion, money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act violations, government assistance fraud, and bank fraud.

Craig Cafaro is a Partner at Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC in New York, where he focuses on tax planning and compliance for high-net-worth individuals, entities, and trusts across industries including family office, real estate, and franchise, while also specializing in litigation support and forensic accounting in connection with tax controversies and criminal and civil investigations. Craig has more than 25 years of experience, has been a member of the firm’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative Committee and Tax Quality Control Committee, and has successfully represented clients before the IRS and various state taxing authorities in examinations, penalty abatements, and offers-in-compromise. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Bryant College and an M.S. in Taxation from the University of New Haven. Prior to Citrin Cooperman, he was a partner at Leon M. Reimer & Co., P.C., and earlier in his career served as an internal auditor in the banking and insurance industries.

Nina Tross is an Enrolled Agent with more than 20 years of experience as an independent tax professional and small business advisor based in Arizona. She is the owner of AZ Business Solutions, Inc. and is recognized as a leading voice in the national tax professional community, having served as Executive Director of the National Society of Tax Professionals (NSTP) and served on the NSTP Board of Directors (2011–2013). Nina holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Business Administration from Western International University and earned her EA credential from the IRS. More than 90% of her tax credential exam preparation students have passed the exam on their first attempt, making her a highly respected instructor. She has been quoted as a national authority on IRS enforcement trends, tax scams, and AI-related tax fraud in CFO Dive and other major business publications, and regularly teaches NSTP seminars across the country.

Walter Pagano is a Tax Partner at Eisner Advisory Group LLC in New York, leading the firm’s tax controversy practice and specializing in litigation consulting, forensic accounting, and white collar criminal defense. He brings more than 40 years of diversified experience to complex civil and criminal matters — including financial statement fraud, commercial disputes, tax controversies, internal investigations, and matrimonial and guardianship litigation — and has testified in federal and state courts and at arbitration hearings, and served as a court-appointed forensic accountant and special fiscal agent. Prior to private practice, Walter was an IRS revenue agent, appeals officer, cooperating revenue agent with IRS Criminal Investigation, and forensic accountant assisting federal prosecutors. He has been a presenter, moderator, and panel member at numerous accounting, legal, fraud, and tax CPE conferences and institutes, and co-authored a chapter in the ACFE Fraud Casebook.

Stephanie C. Svenonius is an Enrolled Agent and the owner of S2 Tax, LLC, a tax practice based in Bangor, Maine, serving clients across the United States, U.S. expatriates worldwide, and inbound foreign taxpayers with their U.S. filing requirements. With more than 20 years of experience, her practice focuses on comprehensive tax preparation and IRS and state revenue representation for individuals and businesses. She holds an M.S. in Taxation from Bentley University (home to one of the nation’s first graduate tax programs), a Graduate Certificate in Taxation from Bentley University, and a B.S. in Organizational Management from Daniel Webster College. She holds the EA designation (since 2009) and the NTPI Fellow designation, demonstrating advanced expertise in taxpayer representation. She serves on the board of the Accounting Cornerstone Foundation and has been affiliated with the National Tax Practitioners Institute, Baker Newman & Noyes, and Vitale Caturano & Company.

Scott E. Fink is a Shareholder in Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Tax Practice in New York, where he focuses on civil and criminal federal and state tax controversies and litigation. He represents corporations, partnerships, estates, and individuals before the IRS and state and local tax authorities at every stage of a dispute — examinations, collections, administrative appeals, and litigation in court. Scott earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan (1996), his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University (2000), and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law (2005). He is a frequent speaker at ABA Tax Section criminal and civil tax controversy conferences and has been a moderator and panelist at events including the ABA’s 2024 Criminal Tax Fraud and Tax Controversy Conference.

Pamela Grewal is a managing director in the US National Tax practice at Andersen, based in San Francisco, California. She draws on over 17 years of government experience to assist clients in navigating federal tax controversy matters. After launching her career at the Department of Justice Tax Division, she transitioned to the IRS Counsel’s National Office in Washington, D.C., where she advised IRS and DOJ personnel on emerging issues in the tax-exempt organizations sector and drafted letter rulings and regulations. Upon relocating to the San Francisco office, her legal expertise expanded significantly as she litigated cases for various divisions and advised numerous examination teams on a wide range of issues.

Michael Sardar is a partner in Kostelanetz LLP’s New York City office with extensive experience across a wide range of tax controversy and white-collar criminal defense matters. He represents clients in all stages of civil and criminal tax controversies before the IRS, state tax authorities, the Department of Justice, and local prosecutors, and advises taxpayers facing audits and investigations of noncompliance with foreign bank and asset reporting requirements.

Hale E. Sheppard is a Partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s Tax Practice Group in Atlanta, where he leads a 12-attorney tax controversy team that joined from Chamberlain Hrdlicka in March 2025. With more than 20 years of experience, Hale defends clients in tax audits, appeals, and Tax Court litigation, with a focus on conservation easements, employee retention credits, qualified opportunity zones, captive insurance, and international tax controversies. He has a proven track record in Tax Court, federal district court, and the courts of appeals, and has secured numerous private letter rulings from the IRS National Office. He is a prolific legal scholar with more than 300 major articles published in leading law reviews and tax journals, and has been a Chambers-ranked Georgia tax attorney and a Georgia Super Lawyer since 2012. He earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Kansas School of Law (1997) and passed the bar in 1999.

Barry A. Fischman is a Partner at CBIZ in the New Haven, Connecticut office, where he focuses on tax planning and compliance for closely held businesses across a wide range of industries including construction, real estate, research and development, professional services, and manufacturing, as well as high-net-worth individuals and families. He is a member of CBIZ’s National Construction, Real Estate, Business Enterprise Tax Services, High Net Worth Individuals, Tax Compliance, Family Wealth Services, and Trusts and Estates practice groups. Barry represents clients before the IRS and the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, and is a frequent speaker on income taxation for construction companies, research and development credit opportunities, and gift and estate planning. He holds an M.S. in Taxation from the University of New Haven and a B.S. in Business Administration from Bryant College, and received the Associated General Contractors of Connecticut’s Service Provider of the Year award in 2019.

Stephen M. Kohn is a founding partner of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP and one of the world’s leading whistleblower rights attorneys, with 38-plus years of exclusively whistleblower-focused practice since 1984. He is the author of eight books on whistleblower law — including Rules for Whistleblowers (Lyons Press, 2023), recognized by Kirkus as a Top 100 Indie Book of 2023 — and has been peer-reviewed by the National Law Journal as one of the 50 top plaintiff’s lawyers in the United States, the only whistleblower rights attorney to achieve that distinction. In 2024 and 2025, Forbes named him one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers. He won the first $100 million whistleblower award for UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld and has secured landmark wins under the False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank, AML, FCPA, Commodity Exchange Act, and IRS tax whistleblower laws. He is the founder and chairman of the National Whistleblower Center, co-founded in 1988. Steve earned his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law (1984) and holds a B.S. from Boston University and an M.A. in political science from Brown University.

Dean Zerbe is National Managing Director of alliantgroup and a partner at Zerbe, Miller, Fingeret, Frank & Jadav LLP, a law firm specializing in tax whistleblowers and tax litigation. He is also a Senior Policy Advisor to the National Whistleblower Center. Dean spent more than 25 years in congressional service, including as Senior Counsel and Tax Counsel for the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Senator Charles E. Grassley, from 2001 to 2008. In that role, he was the driving force behind the legislation that created the modern IRS Whistleblower Office and expanded the rewards for tax whistleblowers. He has represented several tax whistleblowers — including Bradley Birkenfeld, who received the largest individual whistleblower award in U.S. history ($104 million) — and led the landmark Tax Court case Whistleblower 21276-13W v. IRS (2017), which established the definition of ‘collected proceeds’ under the whistleblower law. He holds a J.D. from George Mason University and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University (notably also holding a BFA in Film Production from NYU). He was recognized by National Journal as one of the ‘Hill 100’ top congressional staffers.

Bradley C. Birkenfeld is the most significant financial whistleblower in history — the former UBS private banker whose disclosures triggered the demise of Swiss banking secrecy and launched a global crackdown on bank-aided tax evasion that has resulted in the recovery of over $25 billion from American tax cheats. Born in the Boston area, Brad began his banking career at State Street Bank in 1988 before moving to Europe in 1995, where he worked as a private banker for Credit Suisse, Barclays Bank, and UBS. In 2005, he objected to UBS management about the bank’s illicit practices enabling wealthy Americans to commit tax fraud and, rebuffed by management, contacted American authorities. His disclosures led to UBS’s $780 million settlement with the U.S. government, the release of thousands of American account holder names, and over 120 criminal indictments. In 2012, the IRS awarded him $104 million — 26% of the $400 million in taxes collected — the largest reward ever paid to an individual whistleblower in U.S. history. He is the author of Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored: The Untold Story of How I Destroyed Swiss Bank Secrecy and holds an international MBA from the American Graduate School of Business in Switzerland. He currently resides in Malta.

Liz Askey is Of Counsel in the Tax Controversy and Litigation practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She has more than three decades of experience advising on tax controversy matters, including examinations, appeals, alternative dispute resolution, and litigation. She also has extensive experience in controversy mitigation strategies, including private letter rulings, closing agreements, prefiling agreements, the Industry Issue Resolution program, and regulatory and legislative tax policy advocacy.

Sarah Green is a senior managing associate at Dentons Sirote in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is a member of the Tax practice. With a strong focus on tax controversy and litigation, she represents clients during all phases of federal income tax disputes, including IRS audits, administrative appeals, and court proceedings in the U.S. Tax Court, federal district court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals. With experience navigating a diverse array of complex tax issues, Sarah focuses on federal and state civil tax controversies, including representing clients in sensitive audits, administrative appeals, and litigation. She also provides tax advice and represents individuals and entities in criminal tax investigations and prosecutions.