New Tax Section Chair Andrew Walker: ‘It’s a Great Honor and Privilege’
2.27.2025
Growing up in South Africa, Andrew Walker never imagined that he would become the chair of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section. It’s the latest step in a journey he started when he moved to the United States to go to Harvard Law School.
“If you’d asked me before I started law school whether I would potentially end up as a U.S. tax lawyer, I would have laughed,” he said. “But it just clicked in law school. The substance, the nature of the problems, the way we have to think about things, just appealed to me.”
Walker is a partner at Milbank in New York City and a member of the firm’s Tax Group, with a practice focused on international federal income tax matters. He has been with the firm since 1997 and a partner since 2002.
“[Tax law] literally touches every American,” Walker said. “Every transaction that gets done that touches America involves vast amounts of money.”
He was introduced to the New York State Bar Association through a partner at his firm. “He was working on a report on a particular tax subject, and I was an associate, and he made me work on a lot of it,” he said. “And I really enjoyed it. I got to see the process. It was very intellectually interesting. It was great to interact with other people, and see him interact with other people on the working group. It showed me the benefits that I could get from being more involved in the state bar, specifically in the Tax Section.”
Walker said that since tax law is constantly changing, the Tax Section has made it a priority to keep attorneys informed so that they can get the best results for their clients while staying within the law. To that end, the section often releases reports of commentary, guidance and analysis on the latest developments in tax law.
Last year, the Tax Section released 20 reports, ranging in length from five to 237 pages.
“A huge part of what we do is writing reports and comments on legal developments in particular regulatory packages,” he said. “Those are not quick and easy… [It] involves an enormous amount of work, so just keeping that train going on the tracks is a huge goal. It’s a lot of coordination, trying to stay on top of the relevant areas that people are commenting on to the extent you can.”
Looking forward, Walker aims to have the Tax Section continue this work.
“It’s a great honor and privilege to do this,” said Walker. “The Tax Section is one of the largest sections of the state bar. People, on the whole, are extremely involved and engaged and active. I hope that will continue, not just in my year, but going forward. But we have to constantly work to make sure it does, and that we are able to keep doing what we’ve been doing so successfully in the past, and then hopefully improve and grow on that.”
