Tax Advisers - Deloitte

United States
James M O’Brien
Baker & McKenzie LLP
130 E Randolph Drive, Suite 3700
Chicago, IL 60601
US
Tel: (1) 312 861 8602
Fax: (1) 312 616 7345
Email: james.m.obrien@bakernet.com
Website: www.bakernet.com
James M O’Brien is a partner in the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie. The firm has
over 150 tax attorneys in North America and over 500 tax attorneys globally. Mr O’Brien
joined Baker & McKenzie upon graduating from law school in 1981. He became a
partner in 1988. Between 1999 and 2002, he served as chair of Baker & Mckenzie’s
North American tax practice group. He currently serves as chair of its Tax Controversy
sub-practice.
Since 1981, Mr O’Brien’s practice has focused on federal tax controversies, international
tax planning and transfer pricing. Representing clients in disputes with the IRS or
foreign tax authorities makes up the majority of his practice.
Mr O’Brien’s tax litigation experience has concentrated on large tax (so-called
coordinated industry case or CIC) controversies on behalf of US and foreign
multinationals with the IRS. His litigation experience covers diverse US tax issues,
including satisfaction of the subpart F manufacture or production test; the eligibility of
computer software masters and germplasm for FSC benefits; deductibility of hostile
takeover costs; eligibility for, and quantification of, the section 936 possession tax credit;
research credit qualification and computation issues; unrelated business income;
employment tax; and section 861 expense allocation and apportionment. The litigated
issues often involve high profile subjects (for example tax consequences of the Bhopal gas
disaster) or issues designated for litigation by the IRS.
He has litigated to opinion several inter-company pricing cases, including Eli Lilly & Co
v. Commissioner 84 TC 996 (1985), rev’d in part, aff’d in part, and rem’d, 856 F2d 855 (7th
Cir 1988); Sundstrand Corporation v Commissioner 96 TC 226 (1991); The Perkin-Elmer
Corp v Commissioner 66 TCM (CCH) 634 (1993); and Compaq Computer Corporation v
Commissioner 78 TCM (CCH) 20 (1999). In 2002, Mr O’Brien successfully argued
before the Ninth Circuit that export licences of computer software masters qualified for
FSC tax benefits, thereby ending a two-decade battle between the IRS and the software
industry over the scope of the FSC statute and regulations: Microsoft Corp. v
Commissioner, 311 F.3d 1178 (9th Cir 2002).
Mr O’Brien has represented numerous clients in IRS audit, appeals, competent authority
and APA proceedings for the past 25 years. Given Baker & McKenzie’s broad network
of foreign offices, he often has worked closely with the firm’s foreign tax lawyers on
double tax cases arising from transfer-pricing or business profits adjustments proposed
by the IRS or a foreign tax authority.
Mr O’Brien is the lead author of a 600-page international tax treatise, US Corporations
Doing Business Abroad (RIA). He has published a number of articles in US, Japanese and
European tax journals. He is a regular speaker at TEI, ATLAS and other tax seminars.
Between 1990 and 1993, he was an adjunct professor at IIT Chicago Kent Law School,
teaching the international tax course in the graduate tax program.
Mr O’Brien is a 1978 graduate (summa cum laude) of the University of Notre Dame,
where he competed on the varsity track team. He is a 1981 graduate (magna cum laude)
of the Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Defenders Legal Aid
Society and was invited to join the Harvard Law Review.
294 Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers