Tara Thompson

Tara Thompson became a partner at Loevy & Loevy in 2014. She works from the firm’s New York office and litigates civil rights and post-conviction cases on the East Coast, in the Midwest, and in state and federal courts around the United States.

Ms. Thompson has focused her practice on civil rights and post-conviction matters for nearly 20 years. In that time, she has litigated through trial, settlement, and successful appeal, numerous cases involving wrongful conviction, malicious prosecution, wrongful death, prisoner’s civil rights, and other constitutional claims.

Ms. Thompson devotes a significant portion of her practice to the Exoneration Project, where as Co-Director she helps lead the Project’s efforts to help wrongfully-convicted people gain their freedom through litigating state post-conviction petitions, federal habeas petitions, and successfully defending clients at retrials. She spent a decade co-teaching the Exoneration Project clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and now operates an Exoneration Project externship program for New York-area law school students.

Tara graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 2003. She served as the Senior Comment Editor for the University of Chicago Legal Forum. She also participated in the law school’s Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, working for several years in the Civil Rights & Police Accountability Project under the direction of Professor Craig Futterman. She was a member of the clinic student board and received the Edwin F. Mandel award, given yearly to those law school graduates who most demonstrate commitment to and effective advocacy for clients.

Following law school Tara worked as an associate in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office, where she represented clients in a variety of litigation matters, including a significant commitment to pro bono representation. She left Mayer Brown in 2006 to clerk for Judge Elaine Bucklo of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. After completing her clerkship, she joined Loevy & Loevy in 2007.

When not practicing law and teaching, Tara can be found cheering for the Utah Jazz and Gotham FC.

Bar Admissions

• Pennsylvania, 2026
• New York, 2022
• Connecticut, 2021
• Illinois, 2003