Ana Cláudia Akie Utumi is the founding partner of Utumi Advogados. She has more than 25 years of experience in the tax area, 17 of which as tax head of one of the largest Brazilian full-services law firms. Ana Cláudia practices in the areas of tax consulting and tax litigation, advising business families, local  and multinational companies from a wide range of sectors and industries in Brazilian and international tax matters. With outstanding experience both in direct and indirect taxes, Ana Cláudia is known for the excellence of her work in several issues, such as tax planning, corporate transactions taxation (reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, etc.), financial and capital markets taxation, international taxation (involving both the structuring of Brazilian investments abroad and foreign investments in Brazil, transfer prices, double taxation treaties, withholding taxes, CFC, etc.), technology issues taxation, among others.

Ana Cláudia is a member of the Practice Council of the International Tax Program of New York University and of the Steering Group of the Women of International Fiscal Association (IFA) Network – WIN.  She serves as Co-Chair of the International Tax Committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of International Law and as Chair of the Brazilian branch of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP Brazil). Ana Cláudia is currently the Director of the Brazilian Association of Financial Law (ABDF – IFA Brazil), and was a member of the IFA Permanent Scientific Committee from 2010 to 2017, being also a member of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 71st IFA Congress held in Rio de Janeiro in August 2017.

She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB, entity which grants the Certified Financial Planner CFP® certificate and has more than 170 thousand CFP professionals around the world) and of the Board of the Viconde de Porto Seguro Foundation, maintainer of the Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro (located in São Paulo and formerly called “German School”) and of the Local Community School.

Ana Claudia is a guest lecturer at the FIPECAFI Faculty MBA courses and at the LL.M in International Taxation course from the University of Zurich. She is frequently invited by different institutions as guest lecturer of their postgraduate courses. She also works as a researcher at the FGV Law School in São Paulo.

She is frequently invited as guest lecturer in seminars and congresses around Brazil and abroad and is also a regular source to the major national press. Ana Cláudia is acknowledge as one of the leading tax lawyers in Brazil and Latin America by international directories and rankings such as Chambers (Global and Latin America), The Legal 500, International Tax Review (ITR), Latin Lawyer, LACCA Approved, Leaders League, among others, having been awarded the “Best Latin American Female Tax Lawyer Award” in 2015 (Euromoney America’s Women in Law Awards).

Education
PhD in Tax Law, University of São Paulo (USP)
Master in Tax Law, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP)
MBA in Finance, Insper (former IBMEC-SP)
Bachelor of Laws, University of São Paulo (USP)
Bachelor of Business Administration, Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV)

Languages
Portuguese, English and Spanish