Tamarah P. Prevost 

Tamarah P. Prevost is a Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP partner focused on employment, personal injury and consumer rights cases.

Civil rights causes are important to her. Raised in Canada, she was drawn to Northern California. “I googled ‘public interest social justice law schools Bay Area,’ and I got Santa Clara University School of Law,” she said. “I want to represent the underdog.”

While she got her J.D., she worked as a judicial extern for Associate Justice Nathan D. Mihara of the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose and as a research assistant for the law school dean.

Prevost joined the Cotchett firm in 2016. “I couldn’t have asked for a better place to work,” she said.

She has served as secretary of the board of governors of Communities Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA), the largest domestic violence victims’ aid group in Santa Clara County. And she is an active member of the American Association of Justice.

Prevost represents the city of San Jose to defend its first-of-its-kind firearm ordinance, which requires all resident gun owners to carry insurance for their weapons and to pay an annual $25 fee to a nonprofit organization aimed at reducing gun violence.

The ordinance is under legal fire from a gun owners’ group and from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which objects to the fee. Their cases have been consolidated. National Association for Gun Rights Inc. et al., 5:22-cv-00501 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 25, 2022).

The case presents novel federal, state and municipal law issues and has received national media exposure. New Jersey has modeled a state law after San Jose’s, and California lawmakers are considering one as well.

“The gun plaintiffs say that any regulation whatsoever impinges on their Second Amendment rights,” Prevost said. “Our view is that this is a very tailored approach, reasonable and sensible.” In August, the court denied the plaintiffs’ bid for a preliminary injunction and dismissed nine of 10 claims in the complaints. Prevost’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ new complaint will be heard in June.

Prevost also represents the Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, the first openly transgender bishop of a large Lutheran denomination. Rohrer alleges that upon being elected bishop of the Oakland-based Sierra Pacific Synod, he was repeatedly misgendered, ridiculed and demeaned by church leadership, clergy and congregants. Rohrer v. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America et al., 3:23-cv-00923 (N.D. Cal., filed March 1, 2023).

A challenge for Prevost is to persuade the court that the so-called ministerial exception, a doctrine that shields church bodies from legal claims, does not bar Rohrer’s employment law causes of action. “Harassment and breach of contract aren’t exempt, we contend,” she said. “This is a fight that needs to be fought.”

— John Roemer