Tara’s practice focuses on business litigation and class actions. She has extensive appellate experience and currently represents defendants in numerous class actions.
Before joining Shook, Tara was an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago Department of Law, Appeals Division. There she represented the city of Chicago in a full range of appellate litigations in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Illinois Appellate Court. Her work included researching, writing, and filing appellate briefs and motions and defending police board discharge decisions and Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) matters. She also worked for the City of Chicago Constitutional and Commercial Litigation Division where she represented the city in state and federal civil litigation, including cases under the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. While there she managed all aspects of discovery, and her work included matters pertaining to the ADA, affirmative defenses and settlement agreements.
Tara’s rich background in serving as a law clerk and legal intern and extern has given her additional experience encompassing city, county and federal courthouses and government agencies and includes the Circuit Court of Cook County, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Office of the Illinois Attorney General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.