Trask, Tara

Tara Trask is the President of Trask Consulting, a boutique litigation strategy, jury research and trial consulting firm with offices in San Francisco, Houston and New York. Ms. Trask’s practice focuses on civil litigation with an emphasis on complex commercial litigation; including intellectual property, (patent and trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation) antitrust, securities, breach of contract and fraud. She has also assisted both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving products liability, insurance, and oil and gas. Ms.Trask also has extensive experience in assisting institutions and individuals in matters involving regulatory enforcement and white collar defense.

 

Over her 23-year career, Ms. Trask has been involved in over 450 jury trials in 25 states and U.S. territories.Some of her more notable engagements include assisting:

 

• Plaintiffs in Green Mountain Glass LLC and Culchrome LLC v. Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc., d.b.a Verallia North Americain the District of Delaware. The jury found willful infringement of one U.S. Patent and awarded damages of $50.3 million.

 

• Defendants SAC Capital and Stephen A. Cohen in Kaplan v. SAC Capital Advisors in the Southern District of New York. The suit resulting from the largest insider trading investigation in U.S. history was resolved prior to trial.

 

• Plaintiffs in Cioffi, et al. v. Google, Inc. in the Eastern District of Texas. The jury found that Google’s Chrome Browser Sandbox technology infringes 3 U.S. Patents owned by inventors Al Cioffi and AlRozman (deceased). The jury awarded damags of $20 million.• Defendant Texas Brine in Gustave J. Labarre, et al. v. Occidental Chemical Company, LLC., et al., a class action brought by landowners in the wake of the Bayou Corne sinkhole incident in Assumption Parish,LA. The case was resolved prior to trial.

 

• Plaintiffs in Meyer/Brunson, et al. v. Health Plan of Nevada, Inc. The negligence case was brought against the insurer in the wake of a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas that was traced to colonoscopy clinics owned by Dr. Dipak Desai, now serving a prison term. The resulting $525 million verdict remains the largest verdict in Nevada history.

 

• Defendant Transocean in the Multidistrict Litigation, Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Eastern District of Louisiana. The negligence case against Transocean arising from the Macondo Wellincident on April 20, 2010 was resolved prior to trial.• Plaintiff in Centocor v. Abbott in the Eastern District of Texas. The $1.67 billion result remains the largest patent infringement verdict returned by a jury in U.S. history.

 

• Defendant Oprah Winfrey in Texas Beef Group v. Winfrey in the Northern District of Texas. The jury returned a defense verdict in the libel case.

 

• Plaintiff in the Exxon v. Lloyd‘s excess coverage case involving the Valdez oil spill. The resulting $250 million verdict was one of the largest in Texas that year.

 

• Defendants, Reliant Energy and four Reliant Energy traders in The United States v. Reliant Energy, et al.,indictments arising out of the California Energy Crisis of 2000. The case was resolved prior to trial.

 

Ms. Trask is a nationally recognized author and lecturer on juror psychology and other trial science topics.She is a member of the American Bar Association, The Bar Association of San Francisco, and the APA Psychology-Law Society. She currently serves as chair of the Trial Consultant Advisors to the Civil Jury Project at NYU Law School.She has been a member of the American Society of Trial Consultants since 1994. She served on the board of directors from 2005-2012, serving as Treasurer, President-Elect and President. Ms. Trask currently serves as the chair of the ASTC/CJP join working group and liaison to the Civil Jury Project at NYU Law School.Ms. Trask is an avid fundraiser, previously serving on the board for Raphael House, San Francisco’s first family shelter. She has competed in over 125 triathlons, including Ironman New Zealand.