Tara Charnes joined the team as General Counsel of Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company in August 2020.
Tara has served as in-house counsel for multiple publicly traded Fortune 1,000 companies, advising executive leadership, the board of directors, and business partners on a wide array of matters, including SEC and corporate governance, intellectual property, advertising, employment, and litigation management. She brings a diverse portfolio of practical experience acquired from her time spent leading nearly every facet of a legal department.
Tara most recently served as Vice President, Litigation for Big Lots!, where she led the company’s strategic approach to securities, consumer and wage and hour class action litigation, as well as intellectual property disputes, employment litigation, and other aspects of litigation and claims. She achieved multi-million dollar savings while successfully implementing significant operational efficiencies and served on the company’s Enterprise Risk Management Steering Committee.
Prior to Big Lots!, Tara served as Director, North America Legal, Securities and Corporate Governance for The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, where she worked closely with the executive management team and board of directors on SEC and corporate governance matters and managed multiple other legal department functions, including litigation, compliance, advertising, and commercial law. Before that, she was a member of the Securities, Competition, and Complex Litigation Group at international law firm Sidley & Austin LLP. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Kenneth F. Ripple of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Tara earned her Juris Doctor summa cum laude from the Valparaiso University School of Law, where she was executive editor of student writing for the Valparaiso Law Review. She earned her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Denison University. Tara looks forward to relocating with her husband, Clint, and three children to the Canton area from Columbus, OH.