A. Thomas (Tom) Brisendine, Jr.

A. Thomas (Tom) Brisendine, Jr., a prominent tax attorney and a leading authority on executive and deferred compensation issues, passed away at age 72 in 2015. He was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2001.

Tom received his B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. After attending Washington and Lee School of Law in Lexington, VA, he transferred to Emory to receive his J.D. Following graduation, he served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (“JAG”) for four years, ending his military service in 1973 as the legal advisor to the Army’s Conscientious Objector Review Board.

He then served as a legal assistant to Congressman John J. Flynt, Jr., of Griffin, GA. Tom enjoyed a rewarding 22-year career with the IRS’s Office of Chief Counsel, where he gained a deep understanding of tax policy considerations associated with executive compensation issues. As a nationally recognized speaker on executive and deferred compensation, he was a featured lecturer at American Bar Association, American Law Institute-American Bar Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and other continuing-education events.

After retiring from the IRS in 1996, Tom joined Deloitte & Touche LLP as a Director in Deloitte’s Washington National Tax practice. He authored and co-authored over 20 articles and publications on executive compensation topics, including Bureau of National Affairs (“BNA”) Tax Management Portfolio 385 on Deferred Compensation Arrangements. He was a member of the American Bar Association.

Cate Livingston Fernandez, Tom’s colleague at the IRS and later IRS Executive Compensation Branch Chief, described Tom this way:

Tom knew how to bring along junior attorneys and treated them as invaluable members of his team. When I first started working for him, I was intimidated – his reputation as a national expert on nonqualified deferred compensation (“NQDC”) was formidable – but he had such a great sense of humor, was so easy to talk to, and was such an outstanding teacher and mentor that I couldn’t help but learn from him. He never “hid the ball,” was approachable, amusing, and kind, and he loved to talk tax. He was also keenly interested in his employees as people and wanted to be sure they were getting good work and were happy professionally and personally.

Tom was involved in the articulation of many of the interests the IRS used to formulate its ruling positions on NQDC in the 1980s. Those positions appeared in the nitty-gritty language of IRC §409A (Tom was shocked, but pleased, when Congress enacted § 409A). He worked on the Hill for a Georgia congressman and was a bit cynical about Congress – one of his memorable phrases was “it’s hard to interpret the law when it is written in crayon.” When Tom retired from IRS, I was heartbroken – he was the best boss, mentor, and colleague a person could have asked for. In private practice, he was as principled as he had been in the government, and he didn’t hesitate to share his views when he thought a legal argument was misleading or a scheme faulty. That made some people mad, but Tom was open, honest, and principled – and those traits won him a slew of loyal fans.

After Tom’s retirement from Deloitte in 2004, he served as an expert witness in litigation involving Ponzi schemes, worked as a volunteer with Stop Child Abuse Now of Northern Virginia (“SCAN”), enjoyed monthly meetings of his ROMEO (“Retired Old Men Eating Out”) Club, and proudly pontificated at biweekly meetings of armchair policy strategists. An active and involved Eagle Scout and a member of the Order of the Arrow (which awarded him the Distinguished Service Award in 1963), Tom continued his dedication as an adult, serving as a Boy Scouts troop leader and a District Commissioner.

A brilliant legal mind and a leader in the development of NQDC law, Tom’s greatest legacy was perhaps the generosity with which he shared his knowledge with others.


Photo Source: https://www.mountcastle.net/obituaries/Allen-Thomas-Brisendine?obId=25890882