She is the Chief Executive of Lai’Latif & Co Advocates, a unique legal practice that excels in corporate and international taxation, transactions law, and uplifts underprivileged women through a philanthropic wing powered by zakat. She chairs and leads research at the Committee on Fiscal Studies (CFS), an academic think tank addressing revenue mobilization, allocation, spending, illicit financial flows, tech tax, power asymmetries in tax norms/rules negotiations, and progressive tax system design.

With a PhD in wealth tax, an LLM in public finance, an MA in development and governance, and a first-class LLB, Lyla is highly qualified in her field. She has drafted Kenya’s land laws, the emerging technologies bill for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, and amendments to various laws for the Kenyan government. As a member of the Tax Law Committee of the East Africa Law Society, she has pioneered tax law reforms and harmonization for regional integration. Lyla is a non-executive director of the Tax Justice Network and an advisory board member of the International Lawyers Project.

In September 2023, Lyla was appointed to the inaugural Taskforce working group on Emerging Technologies and Data Governance by the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy, mandated to develop the vision, policies, and legal framework for propelling Kenya as Africa’s digital hub. She has taught at the University of Nairobi, Cardiff Law School, London School of Economics, and Warwick Law School, and has provided consultancy services to various international organizations and governments, including UNDP, UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, UNECA, AUC, AFRODAD, TJNA, EATGN, World Vision Kenya, KELIN, UNAIDS, UNCTAD, and the ministries and revenue authorities of Uganda, Eswatini, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Tanzania, and Egypt. Lyla has also designed an Anti-Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) Policy Tracker for Tax Justice Network Africa to pilot and evaluate AU Member States’ laws, institutions, and cross-border exchange of information in preventing IFFs.