Tax Controversy Settlement Governance Director

The mandate

The committee wants an independent view on when a direct-tax dispute should continue, narrow or settle. The recurring question is not whether management can defend a position, but whether additional time, cost, cash restriction, precedent and uncertainty are justified by the range of plausible outcomes. The adviser will test decision quality without entering negotiation or representation.

For seven months, the Director will hold a weekly case clinic, monthly sponsor review and one scheduled committee meeting. Early sessions will establish a common expected-value and precedent framework; subsequent work will challenge selected cases at genuine decision points; the final review will assess whether management can present settlement choices consistently after the advisory term.

The adviser has no line authority, settlement mandate, signing right or power to instruct counsel. Questions, scenario analysis and recommendations flow through the committee sponsor. Case leaders own facts and legal strategy; authorised executives or directors decide whether to accept, reject or counter a settlement path.

Prior authority roles, advisory relationships, counterparty matters and economic interests connected to the portfolio require disclosure. The Director will recuse where confidential knowledge or perceived allegiance impairs independence. Renewal is available only for a new governance question, not to shadow continuing negotiations.

What you will own

• Shape a settlement framework covering legal strength, evidence, cash, interest, timing, adviser cost, precedent, collateral effect and management attention.
• Challenge probability ranges and best-case advocacy against contradictory facts, procedural stage and observed authority behaviour.
• Press case owners to identify which concessions change only amount and which create reusable factual or legal precedent.
• Test settlement options against uncertain-tax-position accounting and cash forecasts while keeping their recognition rules separate.
• Review selected decision papers for clear alternatives, authorised negotiation ranges, non-financial consequences and revisit triggers.
• Facilitate two committee rehearsals where new evidence or authority proposals alter the expected-value comparison.
• Recommend portfolio measures that distinguish expenditure, procedural movement, uncertainty reduction and final economic resolution.
• Deliver a closing opinion on settlement governance, unresolved biases and matters requiring continued board oversight.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 20 years in direct-tax controversy, including Director-level recommendations on material settlement, litigation or alternative-resolution choices.
• A settlement you recommended against despite near-term cash relief, or recommended despite internal confidence in the legal position.
• Evidence of comparing amount, probability, time, interest, precedent and management capacity without reducing judgment to one expected value.
• Experience challenging external counsel and internal case leaders while preserving their formal responsibilities.
• Ability to explain the difference between an accounting reserve, negotiation position and acceptable settlement range.
• A conflict record suitable for access to sensitive authority, counsel and counterparty information.
• Availability for two days a week and all seven London committee sessions.

Working terms and boundaries

• The retainer covers two days a week, weekly case clinics and one board or committee meeting for each of seven months.
• The adviser has no line authority and cannot negotiate, instruct counsel, sign correspondence, settle matters or approve accounting entries.
• Drafting submissions, representation and detailed case execution remain excluded unless separately commissioned.
• Conflicts are reviewed before each selected case, with recusal and restricted access recorded by the sponsor.
• The engagement closes with a governance opinion and transfer session; renewal requires a newly approved standing question.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 7 October 2026. Mandate reference TAX-ADV-2026-LON-43.