He earned his accounting and law degrees from the University of Denver and an advanced degree in taxation from New York University. He also served as a revenue agent for the Internal Revenue Service. His research interests include professional ethics for lawyers, CPAs and executives, professional codes of conduct, whistle blowing, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Professor O'Brien teaches principally Accounting Ethics that analyzes key executive and professional decisions by CPAs from both an ethical and legal perspective as well as Business Law for Accountants. He also teaches Executive Business Law for the EMBA program. Professor O'Brien currently serves on the Audit and Compliance Committee of Centura Health.