ABOUT
Brian O’Connor co-chairs the Tax and Wealth Planning Group for the national law firm of Venable and practices in its Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC and Tysons, VA offices. In addition to his role of managing the Tax and Wealth Planning Group, Mr. O’Connor provides sophisticated tax and business advice to publicly-traded and closely-held businesses and their owners. His practice focuses on foreign and domestic tax matters for partnerships, limited liability companies, joint ventures, both C and S corporations, real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and regulated investment companies (“RICs”). He is also regularly consulted by wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs on federal and state income tax matters and federal estate and gift tax issues.
Mr. O’Connor handles all types of tax matters for clients of all sizes. As a transactional tax attorney, he works on transactions ranging from small sales transactions to merger or acquisition transactions in the billions of dollars. Similarly, as a tax controversy attorney, he has represented both individual clients in small audit matters and publicly-traded corporate clients in tax disputes with amounts at issue in excess of one billion dollars. His clients often find his in-depth knowledge and broad experience very helpful in addressing both their everyday tax needs and their most difficult tax problems.
Mr. O’Connor is an adjunct professor in the graduate tax program at Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches an advanced course on partnership taxation and the preparation of partnership and limited liability company agreements. His course at Georgetown focuses heavily on the technical tax aspects of partnerships as well as the practical business and tax drafting considerations that arise in partnerships with special partners such as tax-exempt organizations, foreign investors and REITs.
Before joining Venable, Mr. O’Connor was an attorney-advisor for the Office of Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC where he worked on high profile legislative projects, regulations and other published guidance relating to partnerships, S corporations, trusts, common trust funds and cooperatives. His valuable experience and continuing connections with the government, when combined with his significant private practice experience, permit Mr. O’Connor to provide unique insights to his clients, both large and small, on important tax and business issues.
