Elena Romanova is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins. She brings extensive experience in tax matters related to cutting-edge equity derivatives and other financial products. Ms. Romanova provides clients with firsthand industry experience and a deep understanding of tax law and unique tax issues faced by broker-dealers and banks in both institutional and retail businesses.

Ms. Romanova’s practice includes a broad range of issues relating to financial products and derivatives. She focuses particularly on tax issues that arise in equity derivative transactions, such as structured notes, convertible debt securities, and swaps and forward contracts. She also has substantial experience in securitization transactions as well as matters relating to withholding tax and information reporting matters, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the OECD Common Reporting Standard, excise tax, and financial industry global tax transparency initiatives. Ms. Romanova is highly regarded within the industry for her in-house experience and deep understanding of tax law. She is regularly called upon to speak at tax conferences to discuss issues relating to derivatives and to the financial industry.

Prior to joining Latham, Ms. Romanova was a Managing Director at Citigroup, where she served as the Global Head of the Business Tax Advisory, supporting the Institutional Clients Group and the Consumer Bank. She also practiced for several years at another major New York firm and prior to that, served as a Tax Policy Fellow at the US Treasury Department, Office of Tax Policy. During her tenure at Citi, Ms. Romanova served on the Board of Directors of the Wall Street Tax Association.

Bar Qualification

  • New York

Education

  • JD, New York University School of Law
    Order of the Coif
  • MPA, Indiana University Kelley School of Business
  • BBA in Accounting, University of Houston
    summa cum laude

Languages Spoken

  • English
  • Russian