Tara provides compliance and litigation advice to financial institutions related to federal and state consumer protection laws. Tara has extensive experience defending and advising financial institutions in consumer finance litigation and regulatory compliance matters. Tara regularly defends financial institutions in litigation involving various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Truth In Lending Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and various state statutes related to consumer protection and unfair and deceptive acts and practices. Tara’s consumer finance litigation and compliance experience crosses various product lines, including mortgage, auto, credit card, student loans, and FinTech. She currently works with a team that serves as national consumer bankruptcy counsel for a national bank. Tara also works with a team defending a mortgage servicer against Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims throughout the country.

Tara also has significant experience helping clients develop and enhance internal programs and processes to ensure compliance with federal and state consumer protection statutes. For example, she has advised a national bank in overhauling its policies and procedures for originating and servicing mortgage accounts in bankruptcy. Tara also has prepared Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act compliance policies for multiple financial institutions. She also advised a national bank in implementation of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule in preparation for compliance audits and exams.

Tara routinely advises clients on matters involving the acquisition, use and sharing of consumer data, including personally identifiable information and financial information, under various state and federal laws. Her work includes advising on use of AI, machine learning and data analytics in risk underwriting modeling and other financial services modeling for potential use in consumer lending and consumer financial services, including analysis and advice on how to explain AI algorithm operations to applicable regulators.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, University of Richmond School of Law, 2002

BA, Gettysburg College, 1996

• Represented corporate debtors in Chapter 11 reorganization and liquidation proceedings.
• Represented secured and unsecured creditors and creditor committees in Chapter 11 reorganizations, restructurings and workouts.
• Represented various non-debtor parties in bankruptcy litigation matters in defense of preference claims, turnover actions, fraudulent conveyance and transfer claims and other insolvency disputes.
• Defended financial institutions against consumer claims alleging violations of automatic stay, discharge injunction, TILA, RESPA, FDCPA, and common law fraud claims.
• Represented clients in attachment, detinue, replevin, injunction, seizure and other creditors’ rights actions.

• Member, Texas State Bar
• Member, Virginia State Bar
• Member, American Bankruptcy Institute

• Selected for inclusion as a Virginia “Rising Star,” Bankruptcy, Virginia Super Lawyers, 2008-2012, A description of the selection methodology can be found on Super Lawyers’ webpage. 
• Selected for inclusion as a Virginia “Super Lawyer,” Bankruptcy, Virginia Super Lawyers, 2013-2015. A description of the selection methodology can be found on Super Lawyers’ webpage. 

• CFPB In-House Judges May Be Next to Come Under Scrutiny, Law360
• Parsing The 4th Circ. Stance In Campbell V. Hanover, Law360
• Fresh guidance from Ninth Circuit about insurers' rights: The court didn't reject 'insurance-neutrality' doctrine — it merely objected to one plan, National Law Journal
• Fourth Circuit Declines to Adopt Blanket Rule against Nonconsensual Nondebtor Releases, American Bankruptcy Institute Journal
• 11th Circ. Extends FDCPA To Bankruptcy Proofs Of Claim, Law360
• 4th Circ. Provides Guidance On Nondebtor Releases, Law360
• Insurance Neutrality: Will Global Industrial Technologies Have a Major Impact?, American Bankruptcy Institute Journal
• Foreseeable Harm Is Not Enough: Supreme Court Rejects Eleventh Circuit’s Relaxed Interpretation of Proximate Cause for Lending Discrimination Claims, Banking Law Journal
• Circuit Split Developing Over Modification of Mortgages on Mixed-Use Properties, Banking Law Journal
• Third Circuit Affirms Decisions Broadly Applying Section 524(g) Injunction To Claims, Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law
• The 20-Year Split: Nonconsensual Nondebtor Releases, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice
• What Happens in Bankruptcy Stays in Bankruptcy, Right? Not Always: What Every Litigator Should Know About Claims Disclosure, Litigation News, Virginia State Bar Litigation Section
• US Supreme Court Narrowly Holds that Filing of Time-Barred Proof of Claim Does Not Violate FDCPA, But Leaves Door Open to Application of the Act in Other Circumstances, Banking Law Journal