A fourth-generation New Mexican, Brendan grew up in Ruidoso, where he attended Ruidoso public schools through eighth grade when his parents moved to Albuquerque. In Albuquerque, Brendan attended Jefferson Middle School of the Albuquerque Public Schools and St. Pius X High School, from which he graduated in 1994.
As a high-school senior, he entered a contest and won the “Funniest Teenager in Albuquerque Stand-up Comedy Championship” with impersonations of Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ross Perot as characters aboard the Starship Enterprise.
At Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., Brendan majored in politics with a minor in gender studies. During his junior year, Brendan participated in American University’s “Washington Semester” program and interned at the White House in the Office of the Vice President assigned to Mrs. Gore’s office.
Brendan worked in and around Little Rock as a journalist for a few years after his 1998 graduation from Hendrix College. But he wanted to return home to New Mexico.
He finally returned to Albuquerque in August 2001 to work as the communications director for the Democratic Party of New Mexico. He then worked again as a journalist before switching to golf equipment sales. In 2004, Brendan started law school at the University of New Mexico. He has practiced law since 2007.
At the University of New Mexico School of Law, Brendan served for three years as his class’s elected representative to the faculty committee, he worked as the research assistant for the dean of the law school, and in 2006 attended the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University’s School of Law. The Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution rates is among the world’s best mediation and dispute resolution training programs.
Brendan’s achievements at the University of New Mexico School of Law included winning the Dean’s Award for his contributions to the law school, the Hugh B. Muir Oath Project contest, and the Judge Oliver Seth Award for Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Ethics.
After he was sworn in as a member of the State Bar of New Mexico, Brendan worked in several different legal jobs before founding The Lawyers O’Reilly PC in 2019.
