Nina W. Tarr
Professor
Director of Clinical Education
Professor Tarr developed the first clinical education program at the University of Illinois College of Law in 1995. The clinic programs are experiential learning opportunities for students to examine issues of professionalism, provide legal services to low income members of the community, explore issues of social justice, and develop skills while synthesizing their law school education.
Professor Tarr has served on the Illinois faculty since 1995 and teaches courses such as evidence, professional responsibility, and domestic violence.
Professor Tarr is co-author of the third edition of Legal Ethics in the Practice of Law with Richard A. Zitrin and Carol M. Langford (LexisNexis) published in 2007. She is active in both national and international associations of clinical professors and helped establish the Clinical Law Review. Professor Tarr's published articles include, amongst others, "Civil Orders for Protection: Freedom or Entrapment;” "The Cost to Children When Batterers Misuse Order for Protection Statutes in Child Custody Cases;” "Clients’ and Students’ Stories: Avoiding Exploitation and Complying with the Law to Produce Scholarship with Integrity;” and, "The Skill of Evaluation as an Explicit Goal of Clinical Education."
Professor Tarr graduated cum laude from the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was a member of the Iowa Law Review. After clerking for the Minnesota Supreme Court, she worked for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services in the areas of family law and legal problems of the elderly poor.
During the academic year 2002-03, Professor Tarr was a visiting professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty at Illinois, Professor Tarr taught at the William Mitchell College of Law, Northern Illinois University College of Law, and Washburn School of Law. She has also spent time at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London on an Inns of Court Fellowship.