Julia Ushakova-Stein

Julia advises on U.S. tax planning and tax controversy matters, with an emphasis on international tax planning (inbound and outbound) and restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, and transfer pricing. She represents clients from a diverse set of industries and geographic areas. She has represented a number of Fortune 500 companies in U.S. federal income tax matters and has successfully represented clients in federal tax controversies at all levels.

Julia was recently recognized as a 2020 Rising Star for Tax by Law360. Julia was honored as one of the top 40 lawyers under 40 in the U.S. by the American Bar Association in 2018 and was the only person to win Euromoney’s Women in Business Law’s Americas Rising Star in Tax award in 2017. She has appeared in Euromoney’s Expert Guides: Rising Stars in the Tax category from 2017 to 2020 and International Tax Review’s 2017 Women in Tax Leaders. Julia was also recognized by California Super Lawyers as a Rising Star from 2018 to 2020, and was shortlisted in the Best in Tax and Tax Disputes category for Euromoney’s 2019 and 2018 Americas Rising Star awards.

Julia also was counsel in successfully settled Conversant et al. v. Commissioner, Tax Court Docket No. 030476-14, and was on the trial team that was successful in Analog Devices & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner, 147 T.C. No. 15 (Nov. 22, 2016).

In addition, Julia teaches international tax at UC Berkeley School of Law and in the Master’s Program at San José State University and regularly speaks at major tax conferences for professional tax groups, including for the International Fiscal Association, ITR and Euromoney. She is the Young International Fiscal Association (YIN) Northern California regional representative.

• Facebook in its $5.7B investment for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms, the biggest telecom operator in India with a pre-money valuation of $65.95 and a subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries. Facebook’s investment in Jio Platforms is reported to be the largest minority tech investment anywhere in the world, and the largest foreign direct investment in the Indian technology sector.
• GitHub, Inc., the world’s leading software development platform, in its $7.5 billion acquisition by Microsoft Corporation;
• Facebook in its $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, which won International Tax Review’s Consumer Products Deal of the Year;
• Goldman Sachs and 13 major New York banks in their investment in Symphony Communications, which won International Tax Review's Joint Venture of the Year award;
•  J.P. Morgan, Barclays and ICAP in their investment in Cloud9 Technologies, which was shortlisted for International Tax Review's America’s Banking Tax Deal of the Year;
• 35 major domestic and foreign banks (e.g., Citibank, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch) in their consortium investment in R3, which won International Tax Review's America’s Financial Services Tax Deal of the Year award;
• General Motors in its acquisition of Cruise Automation, a leader in autonomous driving technology, which was shortlisted for International Tax Review’s America’s Consumer Products Tax Deal of the Year;
• Jet.com in its acquisition by Walmart, which was shortlisted for International Tax Review’s America’s Consumer Products Tax Deal of the Year; and
• Symantec in its acquisition of Lifelock, which was shortlisted for International Tax Review’s America’s Consumer Products Tax Deal of the Year.