James M. O'Brien is a partner in the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie. Between 1999 and 2002, he was chair of the firm's North American Tax Practice Group. Since joining Baker & McKenzie in 1981, Mr. O'Brien's practice has concentrated on large-case tax litigation, such as Microsoft (subpart F �manufacture and production� and FSC software issues), Compaq (transfer pricing and foreign tax credit arbitrage), Sundstrand (transfer pricing), Perkin-Elmer (transfer pricing and �861 R&D expense allocations), and Union Carbide (tax consequence of the Bhopal gas disaster). In addition to tax controversies, his substantive areas of practice are international tax and transfer pricing.

Between 1990 and 1993 Mr. O'Brien was an Adjunct Professor at IIT-Chicago Kent Law School, teaching an international tax course in the graduate tax program. He regularly speaks on international tax and tax controversy topics. He co-authors a bi-monthly column on transfer pricing developments in the Journal of Taxation of Global Transactions. He has written a number of tax articles on international tax and tax controversy issues.