Tara litigates employment disputes before state and federal courts and administrative agencies and counsels clients on a broad spectrum of employment issues. She has experience with cases involving defamation, Title IX claims, and employment laws, as well as complex commercial litigation. Tara represents clients in a broad range of industries, including the education sector.
Prior to joining Mintz, Tara served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Judge Angel Kelley of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Earlier, she was an associate at a Boston-based litigation firm. In that role, she handled a wide array of matters involving employment, commercial, civil rights, and criminal defense litigation. In a multi-defendant civil case in federal court, she served as second chair. She also was lead counsel in a four-day evidentiary hearing in a state administrative matter.
She began her career as an assistant attorney general with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she served in the Trial, Environmental Protection, and Civil Rights divisions.
While earning her JD, Tara interned with the Honorable O. Rogeriee Thompson of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Parole Division of the Public Defender Services in Washington, DC. She also participated in the Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. In law school, Tara won several awards and was selected as one of two student speakers at her commencement.
viewpoints
The Intersection Between Corporate Free Speech Rights and the Recent DEI Executive Orders
March 21, 2025 | Blog | By Geri Haight, Tara Dunn Jackson
As summarized in detail here, President Trump’s recent executive order entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the “Order”) takes aim at non-compliant Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs in both the public and private sectors. With the prospect of “civil compliance investigations” and other actions, the Order is a warning to private employers that have allegedly “adopted and actively use[d] dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race-and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) or ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.” Many private employers have struggled with how to respond to the Order, particularly given the Order’s vagueness and contradictory state and local laws. One of the questions that has emerged is how the Order impacts employers’ commercial free speech rights given the U.S. Supreme Court’s view that such rights are critical to the “uninhibited marketplace of ideas[.]”
Trump Executive Order Takes on DEI in the Workplace: Practical Considerations for Private Employers
January 23, 2025 | Blog | By Nicole Rivers, Corbin Carter, Tara Dunn Jackson, Danielle Dillon, Michael Arnold, Jennifer Rubin
President Trump has issued a flurry of wide-ranging executive orders intended to shake up the employment landscape. One of those orders, entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the “Executive Order”), takes aim at non-compliant DEI programs and policies. It also creates a momentous change in the federal contractor landscape by revoking Executive Order 11246, which has, for the past sixty years, served as the foundation for non-discrimination and affirmative action requirements in the federal contracting space. Although the Executive Order’s mandates are vague in many places and raise more questions than they answer, at bottom, the Executive Order appears designed to attempt to effectively stamp out DEI programs and policies in the federal workforce, while putting private sector employers on notice and pushing them to proactively modify, narrow or even end their DEI initiatives. But as we’ll discuss more below, these developments do not compel private employers to rescind their DEI programs and policies entirely; instead, employers should use the Executive Order as an opportunity to review their existing programs and policies to ensure that they (i) continue to align with their mission and organizational goals, (ii) are legally compliant in light of the change in administration, and (iii) whether subsequently modified or not, thereafter are effectively communicated to stakeholders.
News & Press
5 Things for Private Employers to Do after Trump's DEI Order
February 7, 2025
Associates Corbin Carter, Nikki Rivers, Danielle Dillon, and Tara Dunn Jackson published an article in Law360 about the potential impact of President Trump’s DEI order on the private sector.
podcasts
Mintz on Air: Practical Policies - Veteran Transitions to the Private Sector
April 22, 2025 | Podcast | By Jennifer Rubin, Tara Dunn Jackson
In the latest episode of the Mintz on Air: Practical Policies podcast, Member Jen Rubin hosts a conversation with Associate Tara Dunn Jackson on successful veteran transitions to the private sector. This episode is part of a series of conversations designed to help employers navigate workplace changes and understand general legal considerations.
Events & Speaking
Mintz’s Annual Employment Law Summit 2025 - Boston
One Financial Center, Boston, MA 02111
Recognition & Awards
Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization: 2024 5 Under 40 Legal Professionals (2024)
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: Excellence in the Law, Up & Coming Lawyer Award (2020)
Involvement
- President, Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys
- Board of Advisors, Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (2018 – present)
- Trustee, Massachusetts Bar Foundation (2020 – present)
- Former Board Member, Massachusetts Prisoner Legal Services (2020 – 2023)
- Former Member, Boston Bar Civil Rights Steering Committee (2020 – 2023)