Profile

Margaret C. Tarkington

Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law
Dean’s Fellow

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, Room 307
530 W. New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225

Phone: (317) 278-8440
E-Mail: mtarking@iu.edu

SSRN | Curriculum Vitae

Education

J.D., 2002, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
B.A., 1999, Brigham Young University

Courses

Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure, and Federal Courts

Bio

Margaret Tarkington joined the faculty in the fall of 2011 and teaches Professional Responsibility, Civil Procedure I & II, and Federal Courts. Professor Tarkington is a nationally recognized scholar and expert regarding the First Amendment rights of lawyers. Her scholarship bridges specialties in constitutional law, lawyer regulation, and procedure—harnessing the First Amendment as a means to protect the integrity of government processes. Her research has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Boston College Law Review, the UC Davis Law Review, the Utah Law Review, and the Florida Law Review, among others. In 2018, she published with Cambridge University Press the first book to specifically address lawyers' First Amendment rights: Voice of Justice: Reclaiming the First Amendment Rights of Lawyers. Tarkington’s work develops a new methodology for analyzing lawyers’ First Amendment rights--including rights to speech, assembly, association, and petition--that works to preserve the integrity of the U.S. Justice System and the essential role of attorneys therein. After the 2020 election, Tarkington turned to exploring the rights and duties of the lawyers involved in attempting to overturn the election and whether the Model Rules of Professional Conduct should be amended to clarify the duties of lawyers who advise and assist government officials. Her work has also explored how the judicial punishment of attorney speech for impugning judicial integrity undermines the core purposes of the First Amendment and impedes protection of constitutional and legal rights to an unbiased and competent judiciary.

Tarkington served as the Chair of the AALS Professional Responsibility Section in 2018-19, was elected to terms on its Executive Committee for 2011-2014 and 2022-25, and served as the Editor of the section’s newsletter from 2010-2017. Tarkington has consulted on disciplinary proceedings brought against attorneys for their speech, petitioning, and and her work is cited in major treatises, including the Annotated Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure, Federal Practice and Procedure, and Criminal Defense Ethics: Law and Liability.

Prior to joining the IU McKinney faculty, she taught for four years at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, where she received the SBA Award for Professor of the Year for First Year Courses. In 2010-2011, she was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she taught Legal Ethics, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Torts.

A member of the Order of the Coif and a summa cum laude graduate of BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, Professor Tarkington was also the Executive Editor of the law review. After graduating, she clerked for Judge Kenneth F. Ripple, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in South Bend, Indiana. She previously practiced law in Indiana, Utah, and New York. 

Publications

(SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=857548)

Books and Chapters

• * VOICE OF JUSTICE: RECLAIMING THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF LAWYERS (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• * PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN FOCUS (Wolters Kluwer—Aspen Casebook Series, 2018 & 2d Ed. 2020) (with JOHN P. SAHL, R. Michael Cassidy & BENJAMIN P. COOPER).

Law Review and Journal Articles

• * The Role of Attorney Speech and Advocacy in the Subversion and Protection of Constitutional Governance, 69 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF LAW & POLICY 287 (2022)
• * “Breathing Space to Survive”: The Missing Component of Model Rule 8.4(g), 50 HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW 597 (2022)
• * Reckless Abandon: The Shadow of Model Rule 8.4(g) and a Path Forward, 95 ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW (2021).
• * Throwing Out the Baby: The ABA's Subversion of Lawyer First Amendment Rights, 24 TEXAS REVIEW OF LAW & POLITICS 41 (2020).
• * Lost in the Compromise: Free Speech, Criminal Justice, and Attorney Pretrial Publicity, 66 FLORIDA LAW REVIEW 1873 (2014).
• * Freedom of Attorney-Client Association, 2012 UTAH LAW REVIEW 1071.
• * A First Amendment Theory for Protecting Attorney Speech, 45 UC DAVIS LAW REVIEW 27 (2011).
• * Attorney Speech and the Right to an Impartial Adjudicator, 30 REVIEW OF LITIGATION 849 (2011).
• * Government Speech and the Publicly Employed Attorney, 2010 BYU LAW REVIEW, no. 6, 2175.
• * A Free Speech Right to Impugn Judicial Integrity in Court Proceedings, 51 BOSTON COLLEGE LAW REVIEW 363 (2010).
• * The Truth Be Damned: The First Amendment, Attorney Speech, and Judicial Reputation, 97 GEORGETOWN LAW JOURNAL 1567 (2009).
• * Rejecting the Touchstone: Complete Preemption and Congressional Intent after Beneficial National Bank v. Anderson, 59 SOUTH CAROLINA LAW REVIEW 225 (2008).

Other Publications

• Must a Court Establish Personal Jurisdiction Prior to Dismissing a Case on the Ground of Forum Non Conveniens?, 34 PREVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CASES, no. 4, 194 (2007).
• Should the Rule in Blakely Be Applied Retroactively in Habeas Corpus Proceedings?, 34 PREVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CASES, no. 2, 92 (2006).