Brennen succeeds former dean Allan Vestal who is now dean at Drake University Law School. He comes to Kentucky from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he has been a professor since 2006, and from the Association of American Law School (AALS), where he is completing a two-year term as deputy director. He is considered an innovator in the field of nonprofit law, and is a co-founder and co-editor of Nonprofit Law Prof Blog, founding editor of Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Abstracts, co-founder of the AALS Section on Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law and a co-author of one of the first law school casebooks on taxation of nonprofit organizations.