Brian Kaufman.

• Position: Capital One Financial Corp. Vice President and Tax Counsel

Things to Know About Brian Kaufman

TITLE: Vice President and Tax Counsel

ORGANIZATION: Capital One Financial Corporation

TEI CHAPTER: Baltimore-Washington

TEI LEADERSHIP POSITIONS: Region IV vice president, 2021-22; Baltimore-Washington Chapter representative, 2019-21; Executive Committee member, 2019-20; chair, IRS Administrative Affairs Committee, 2017-2019,2021 (acting).

EDUCATION: AB, Duke University; JD, Northwestern University School of Law; LLM in taxation, Georgetown University Law Center

AFFILIATIONS: Georgetown University Law Center, adjunct faculty; American Bar Association, Tax Section; D.C. Bar Association, Tax Section

BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts

HOBBIES: Golf, travel, biking, hiking, snorkeling, surfing, Duke basketball

Brian Kaufman is very familiar with the aphorism, "like father, like son."

Kaufman's father was a tax accountant for thirty-five years at Arthur Andersen. Because of that, Kaufman says, he had absolutely no desire to go into tax. "It seemed so boring and esoteric. I was really set on being a corporate attorney or litigator," he explains.

However, he says, during law school, his father convinced him to take a few tax classes, which, as it turned out, he really enjoyed. "I had a great tax professor at Northwestern, Kevin Postlewaite, for both corporate and partnership tax and quickly learned that tax wasn't actually boring at all--it was complex, ever changing, and incredibly intellectually challenging," he says. "I loved the way that the tax code, regulations, and administrative guidance overlap with significant case law and how the law was always changing and evolving. At the time, I was also very interested in litigation. As a result, when applying for post-graduation jobs, I interviewed with the US Department of Justice Tax Division for a trial attorney position and realized it was the perfect mix of tax and litigation. I was fortunate enough to be hired right out of law school into the DOJ Honors Program and never looked back."

Today, Kaufman is vice president and tax counsel at Capital One Financial Corporation. He was attracted to Capital One by the combination of corporate culture and the opportunity to continue his tax career in a corporate setting at the same level of challenge and sophistication that he had enjoyed at the Department of Justice and in private practice.

"From the time I first interviewed, it was clear that Capital One highly valued collaboration, innovation, diversity and...