Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie today announces that Cara Harrison has joined the Firm as a Principal Tax Advisor in Chicago, further expanding the capabilities of its top-ranked Tax Practice.
Cara joins Baker McKenzie with more than sixteen years of experience advising on complex global tax issues, including structuring of mergers and acquisitions, post-acquisition integration, carve outs, IP planning, financing and cash management, foreign tax credits, the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting regimes, and other cross border technical matters. Additionally, she has extensive experience managing global teams of advisors on large multi-billion dollar cross-border transactions. Cara provides tax advisory services to a broad range of public and private companies, across a number of industries including manufacturing, information technology, automotive, retail, consumer products and pharmaceuticals.
"Cara will be a tremendous asset for our clients, especially as we support them with tax issues arising from strategic transactions including restructuring, carve outs, and post-merger integration matters," said Salim Rahim, Chair of the Firm's North America Tax Practice Group. "Recent changes in tax law have made accounting an even more important component of tax analysis, and Cara's expertise perfectly complements our capabilities in that area."
Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice is one of the most highly regarded in the world. With more than 900 tax practitioners in over 40 countries, the Practice collaborates across borders and specialties to stay abreast of changing tax landscapes worldwide. The Firm's Tax Planning and Transactions Practice supports the Firm's M&A Practice on transactions, assisting clients with post-acquisition integrations and pre-disposition restructurings, and consulting with clients on a wide variety of tax issues.
Cara's move to Baker McKenzie closely follows the recent arrival of Tax partners Rob Clary in Chicago and Emmanuel Sala in Toronto. Rob and Cara previously worked together as partners at a Big Four accounting Firm.
"I have worked with Cara for many years. She is a brilliant tax advisor and some of the largest companies in the world have relied on her for their most significant matters," said Rob. "I couldn't be more proud to work alongside her once again, serving clients with the benefit of Baker McKenzie's collaborative global platform."
“Baker has an unmatched international tax practice," Cara added. "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of a team that has the resources and reputation for solving businesses' largest and most complex tax matters. The opportunity to serve our clients on large multijurisdictional transactions, restructurings, and other matters as part of an integrated team with worldclass expertise in tax, corporate, IP, transactional, regulatory, and employment law is unique and exciting."
Cara received her BA in Economics and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin and her MS in Accounting from DePaul University.