Brian Kaufman.

• Date: 01 July 2021

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...