User:Philip.cleary

Philip Robin Cleary

Phil Cleary is a tax attorney in New York City and, until recently, served as the Executive Director of the Science Schools Initiative. He is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and spent his senior year in Münster, Germany. He earned a degree in Economics in 2004 from McGill University. Thereafter, in February of 2008, Phil earned a J.D at Brooklyn Law School. During his legal studies, he spent a semester abroad at Buceruis Law School in Hamburg, Germany. Currently, he is pursuing an LL.M. in Tax Law at NYU School of Law. In May of 2008, his article, Predicting the Taxation of Prediction Markets was published by the Virginia Tax Review.

Currently, he works as a Manager at KPMG's Tax Controversy Services group. Previously, he worked as an attorney-advisor for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (LB&I Division) in New York. His work focused on the audits of large international financial institutions. In particular, he served as Lead LB&I Coordinator for the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as well as an Associate Industry Counsel for withholding tax matters and an Associate Industry Counsel for Financial Services (including mark-to-market and managed funds). He has spoken on Tier I Withholding tax issues at the 2010 Tax Executives Institute (TEI) Conference as well as at other conferences.

In addition to his legal work, he was a director on the board of a registered 501(c)(3) charity, the Science Schools Initiative dedicated to improving access of socio-economically disadvantaged children to the best public high schools in New York City. This work involves institutional governance as well as the weekly instruction of middle-school students for the NYC Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). In February 2011, the Initiative announced that 24 of its students received admission into a specialized high school. The Initiative began its fourth year of operation in the autumn of 2010. In October 2011, the New York Times profiled the Initiative. As of September 2011, Phil stepped down from the Initiative's board in order to focus on his career and other endeavors.