About Tara Smith
While Tara’s legal practice style is steeped in compassionate advocacy, she also practices with curiosity and agility, striving for innovative solutions and thriving as an agent of change in the legal industry. Distinguished by a robust background in both business management and legal services, Tara focuses on providing exceptional value to all clients; she offers a tailored and efficient approach to each client’s unique circumstance.
Prior to graduating from law school, Tara both managed and served as an inside sales representative at an independent manufacturers’ agency in the commercial construction industry. Tara’s twelve years of experience in representing numerous manufacturers in the Upper Midwest – serving architects to end users – helped her hone skills equally important to the practice of law: impeccable client service; creative problem solving; and fierce negotiation. Tara relied on these skills, first as a family law attorney at the prominent Minneapolis firm, Walling, Berg & Debele, PA, then as both that firm’s chief operating officer and another’s legal operations manager for six years before forming Maxim Smith Family Law PLLC.
She recently completed the acclaimed Law Firm Leadership training program of the Hennepin County Bar Association as well as participated in the Association of Legal Administrators’ pioneering design-thinking course with other daring law firm leaders from across the United States seeking to elevate access to justice.
As a member of Perpich Center for Arts Education’s inaugural class, Tara is a classically trained pianist and avid supporter of the Arts.
Bar Admission
- Minnesota
William Mitchell College of Law, Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Juris Doctor
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Bachelor of Arts
- Major: English Honors, summa cum laude
Normandale Community College, Bloomington, Minnesota
- Associate of Arts, Highest Honors
Professional Memberships
- Hennepin County Bar Association, Steering Committee, The Institute for Leadership in the Legal Profession (2019 – present); Member (2009 – present)
- Minnesota State Bar Association, Member (2009 – present)
- Hennepin County Bar Association, Member (2009 – present)
- Ramsey County Bar Association, Member (2009 – present)
- Minnesota Women Lawyers, Co-Chair, Alternative Legal Careers Affinity Group (2019 – 2021); Member (2010 – present)
- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Member (2009-2017, 2020 – present)
- Cooperative Practice Network of Minnesota, Founder and Executive Committee Chair (2009 – 2014); Member (2009 – 2017)
- American Bar Association, Member (2009 – 2017)
- Association of Legal Administrators, Editor, the Verdict newsletter (2018 – 2019; 2014 – 2015); Communications Committee (2014 – 2015); Membership Development Committee (2018); Member (2014 – 2019)
- Legal Marketing Association, Member (2015 – 2017)
- Society for Human Resource Management, Member (2014 – 2017)
Publications
- Be the Change and Thrive, the Hennepin Lawyer, Vol. 89, No. 6, November/December 2020
- Family Law Jurisdictional Comparisons, Second Edition, co-contributor of USA-Minnesota Jurisdiction, 2013
- Cooperative or Collaborative Practice Models: Using ADR to Meet Clients’ Needs for Unbundling, ABA Family Advocate, Vol. 35, No. 2, Fall 2012
- Family Law Jurisdictional Comparisons, First Edition, co-contributor of USA-Minnesota Jurisdiction, 2011
- Cooperative Practice: The Flexible ADR Framework, co-authored with Lisa J. Kallemeyn, Esq., MSBA Family Law Forum, Vol. 19, No. 3, Spring/Summer 2011
- She Is Strong, She Is Invincible, and She Outearns Him: Husbands Seeking Spousal Maintenance in the Modern Era, MSBA Family Law Forum, Vol. 18, No. 3, Summer 2010
Presentations
- Thomson Reuters Learning Week, Customer Panel: Firm Administrators, June 10, 2015
- Got Money? program guest, Lake Minnetonka Community Channel 12, June 4, 2013
- The Nuts and Bolts of Cooperative Practice, co-presented with Terryl Johnson, CDFA and Becca Wong, Esq., Cooperative Practice Network of Minnesota, April 17, 2013
- Cooperative Practice: The Flexible ADR Framework, co-presented with Lisa J. Kallemeyn, Esq. and R. Leigh Frost, Esq., Minnesota CLE Webcast, November 20, 2012
- Cooperative Practice: The Flexible ADR Framework, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) – Minnesota Chapter, November 2, 2012
- Cooperative Practice: The Flexible ADR Framework, Minnesota State Bar Association Family Law Section, October 8, 2011
- Cooperative Practice: The Flexible ADR Framework, co-presented with Lisa J. Kallemeyn, Esq., Ramsey County Bar Association, September 30, 2011
- She is Strong, She is Invincible, and She Outearns Him, Ramsey County Bar Association, December 22, 2010
Pro Bono Activities
- Member / Investigator, 4th District Ethics Committee (October 2020 – present)
- Volunteer, Volunteer Lawyers Network (2009 – 2013, 2020 – present)
- Guardian ad Litem, Second Judicial District, Ramsey County, Minnesota (2007 – 2008)
Community
- Delegate, Board of Directors and Member, Transportation Committee, St. Anthony Park Community Council (2020-2021)