By Alexandra Wallin*
On October 5, 2023, Tara McGrath was sworn into office as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. This milestone was the result of several seemingly small moments that had a colossal impact on Tara’s career.
Tara grew up in the Midwest and attended Boston College for her undergraduate degree. While Tara was attending college, she worked as a safety dispatcher at a police station. “This job gave me my first taste of law enforcement work,” she said, and it would be the start of a pattern of public service woven throughout her career. After graduating, Tara worked as a victim advocate for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office. In this position, Tara spent her time working with prosecutors and attending court. These two early jobs would turn out to lay the foundation for her passions of public service and community safety.
Tara recalls one crucial moment in her life, which took place on the road to her first-year orientation at University of Michigan Law School. While driving, Tara was listening to a radio story about a woman hiding in a basement in Afghanistan. This woman was discussing her life working in communications when the Taliban put a target on her back because she was a woman. Driving in her small Ford with miles of road ahead of her, Tara glanced down at her wallet that had her single credit card in it. She realized that the road ahead of her was wide and open. She had a driver’s license and a credit card: she could drive anywhere she wanted and could buy whatever she needed. And she was driving to school to pursue a law degree.
In that moment, Tara asked herself, “Why am I in this place on earth with an open road ahead of me, while this woman is trapped in a basement?” But she already knew the answer: Because she is an American. Countless people had made sacrifices so that she could live the life she has in America. This moment solidified her interest to join the military, so she could protect the freedom of others. During the summer between her first and second years of law school, Tara attended Officer Candidates School. After graduating from law school, she served for four years as a judge advocate on active duty in the Marine Corps.
After serving in the Marine Corps, Tara lived in South Carolina, where she worked as Director of the Coastal Conservation League’s South Coast Office. This allowed Tara to foster her lifelong passion for environmental causes. From South Carolina, she moved to San Diego. Though Tara seems to have moved seamlessly from position to position throughout her career, underneath the surface is the story of a military spouse. “Each move was stressful and forced me to find new work and reevaluate my career,” she said. Tara had to be resilient and learn to make the most out of each move.
Upon moving to San Diego, Tara applied to be an Assistant United States Attorney. She recalls her first interview in the United States Attorney’s private office, where she answered questions in the very office that would later become hers as United States Attorney. She was asked: “Would you be able to sentence a noncitizen mother with United States citizen children in the gallery crying?” This question presented one of the many challenges of being a federal prosecutor.
Fast forward two years. Tara happened to share an elevator with Laura Duffy—now San Diego County Superior Court Judge Duffy—just after she had been confirmed by the Senate as the new United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. In the elevator, Judge Duffy turned to Tara and asked if she wanted to go see her new office. Tara agreed and found herself in the United States Attorney’s private office. The two surveyed the office, discussing the décor and view from the impressive office. Together, they pondered the magnificence—not just the office itself, but the position of United States Attorney.
After seven years as an Assistant United States Attorney, Tara moved to Washington, D.C., and worked in DOJ’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and then as a civilian litigation advisor for the Marine Corps. In 2021, while she was in Japan on assignment for the Marine Corps, a former colleague from the United States Attorney’s Office called Tara to encourage her to apply for the United States Attorney position. The seed that had been planted years earlier in Judge Duffy’s office had surfaced, and Tara spent the following two years going through the process for the position she now holds.
As the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, Tara tries to take the lessons that she has learned throughout her career to achieve the mission of the United States Attorney’s Office. She strives to fortify the safety of the community by targeting drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other crime for profit. She is also dedicated to expanding the office’s environmental practice: she believes that every person in a position of public leadership has an obligation to do their part to care for the environment.
Tara’s career has been shaped by pivotal moments. With each of these moments, Tara trusted her next step and followed her passion for public service and community safety that has led to her current position as the United States Attorney.
* Alexandra Wallin is a Public Relations Committee Member of the Federal Bar Association’s San Diego Chapter. She is a judicial law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.