Tar
a A. Ohler
A native of the St. Louis region, Tara is a 1993 graduate of Cor Jesu Academy. She attended the University of Denver on an honors scholarship and studied abroad at Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow. She graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and double minor in Russian Language and International Studies.
Tara attended the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Law with a focus on public interest law including international environmental law and legal aid. As a student attorney in the Legal Aid and Defender Clinic, Tara’s clients included victims of domestic violence in family court. Experience outside of class included an externship at the E.P.A., case research for the Environmental Law Society, research assistant at the Natural Resources Law Center and a child custody case involving drug addicted parents through the Lend-A-Law Student Program. Tara was a member of the Environmental Law Society, Women’s Law Caucus and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. She graduated in 2000 with a Juris Doctor degree and a Graduate Interdisciplinary Certificate in Environmental Policy.
After graduation, Tara clerked in the Denver office of a San Francisco-based intellectual property law firm. In January 2002 she joined Colorado Legal Services-Denver as an attorney in the Family Unit, where she represented victims of domestic violence in Orders of Protection, assisted on divorce cases, gave presentations and held legal clinics at a shelter for victims.
Tara returned to St. Louis in 2003, becoming a Staff Attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in St. Louis where she represented victims of domestic violence in Orders of Protection, Divorce, Paternity, Custody, Modification, and Contempt cases in St. Louis City and County, St. Charles County and Jefferson County. She left this position in late 2005 to begin her new job of mother.
Throughout 2006, Tara was a volunteer attorney for victims of domestic violence at the St. Louis City Family Justice Center. In early 2007, she formed a solo law practice, Tara A. Ohler, LLC, doing mainly family and traffic. Later that year she also became a substitute attorney in Family Drug Court in the City of St. Louis. While her private practice continued, she became the contract, court-appointed attorney for mothers in Family Drug Court from August 2008 to August 2012 and again from August 2014 until February 2015. This voluntary treatment program in civil court had the goal of family reunification for children who had been placed in the custody of Missouri Children’s Division due to one or both parents’ substance use disorder. In November 2008, Tara met Suzanne in that court, and opposing counsel became friends and future law partners. Tara continued her solo practice until forming Epstein-Lang & Ohler, LLC, on March 1, 2017. She lives in St. Louis with her husband and children.