Blake

Tara primarily practices within Butler Snow's Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Litigation Group.

• Commercial Litigation
• Insurance
• Groundwater & Chemical Exposure Litigation

Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare

• As an attorney in Butler Snow’s Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare group, Tara Blake represents pharmaceutical and medical device companies in product liability litigation across the country, with experience in all aspects of mass tort litigation. As a trial lawyer, Tara has represented her clients in trials in products liability and insurance litigation. In addition to her trial experience, she has been actively engaged in preparing and defending company witnesses, expert witnesses and 30(b)(6) representatives. She has also represented insurance and financial services companies across the country in individual and multi-party litigation involving a wide variety of coverage lines including professional and commercial liability, life, health, property and fidelity/crime coverage, defending against complex, bad-faith, class and punitive damages claims.
• Served as trial counsel in a seven-day jury trial involving pelvic mesh that resulted in a defense verdict in March 2022. McBroom v. Ethicon, Inc., et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-02127, United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
• Served as trial counsel in a certificate of need case in August-September of 2018. Baptist Memorial Hospital v. Saint Francis-Bartlett and Methodist Healthcare, Tennessee Administrative Procedures Division.
• Served on the trial team that obtained complete defense victory in a multi week jury trial on bad-faith/claims issues involving employee theft coverage following a $50 million pretrial damages claim. McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, Inc., et al. v. The Hartford Financial Services Group, No. 30-2011-00463182, California Superior Court, County of Orange (Hon. Mary Fingal Schulte / Dept. C6).

• Nashville Business Journal, 40 Under 40, 2023
• Best Lawyers in America®
  • Ones to Watch, Insurance Law, 2021-2024
  • Ones to Watch, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants, 2021-2024
• Fellow, Nashville Bar Foundation

• Alabama, 2011
• California, 2017
• Tennessee, 2017

• University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., 2011
  • Managing Editor, Alabama Law Review
  • Order of the Coif
  • Hugo L. Black Scholar
  • Recipient of Dean M. Leigh Harrison Award
  • Bench & Bar 
• Furman University, B.S., Psychology, 2006
  • Vice-President, Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society 

• Trial Attorneys of America
• American Bar Association
  • Young Lawyers Division
• Alabama Bar Association
• California Bar Association

• Panelist, "Navigating Remand Trials," Trial Attorneys of America 51st Annual Meeting, June 10, 2022.
• Panelist, "Short Circuits," Trial Attorneys of America 51st Annual Meeting, June 9, 2022.
• Co-Author, "50-State Survey of Statutory Caps on Damages and the Applicability of the Collateral Source Rule," Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 13, No. 4, November 2020.