Kenneth Liles

Kenneth Hardin Liles (born 1920 in Birmingham and died 2009 in Bethesda, Maryland) was an attorney.

Liles was one of four sons born to a South Central Bell employee and brother to artist Raeford Liles. He was a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Michigan Law School. After several years as an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service, Ken joined the law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP in the early 1950s where he practiced with the firm until his retirement in the 1980s. While Ken’s primary area of expertise was the exempt organizations area, he was knowledgeable on a wide array of tax topics. He was very well known in the nonprofit community and represented a number of prominent charitable and educational institutions.

Ken founded the modern-day Federal Bar Association Section of Taxation and helped to establish its high standards for service to the Federal bar, as well as education and policy work. He also served as the Section’s Counsel for a number of years. In 1994, in honor of Ken’s memory and dedication to his practice, the Section on Taxation named its distinguished service award in his honor.

The Kenneth H. Liles award is presented by the Federal Bar Association Section of Taxation annually to recognize practitioners for outstanding service and dedication to tax policy and administration. The award is the Section’s highest honor and is awarded to an individual whose career has exemplified the highest standards of tax practice and who has made significant contributions to federal tax policy and the administration and functioning of the tax system. Past honorees include Commissioners of the Internal Revenue Service, Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury for Tax Policy, and Assistant Attorneys General of the Department of Justice Tax Division, as well as academic scholars and private practitioners.