Tahira Khan Merritt – TKM Law Firm
Since 1992, Dallas Texas lawyer Tahira Khan Merritt has exclusively represented children and adult victims who were sexually violated, exploited and betrayed by those entrusted with their protection and care.
These complex cases involve religious organizations, college and universities, civil corporations, group home operators, day care centers, schools, counselors, and other youth-serving organizations whose members have preyed on children and vulnerable persons.
Tahira Khan Merritt graduated with honors from the Plan II program of University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, she earned her law degree from Baylor University School of Law, which is nationally recognized for its trial advocacy program. After law school, Ms. Merritt served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas in the tort litigation department. She then worked as a Trial Lawyer at the Turley Firm, a nationally-recognized personal injury firm before opening her own law practice in 1997.
In 1997, Attorney Merritt assisted in achieving what was, at the time, the largest jury award ever given in a clergy sexual abuse case in the country. She was also appointed in 2006 as special prosecutor for Eastland County, Texas in a criminal case that ultimately resulted in the 50-year incarceration of a pedophile Catholic priest that she had successfully sued previously on behalf of six victims. She has represented over 150 child and adult victims of sexual abuse and sexual assault.
Ms. Merritt is admitted to practice in State and Federal Courts within Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Texas. She has also served as court-appointed guardian ad litem for injured children in litigation cases, often on a pro-bono basis. She was certified by the State Bar of Texas as a Guardian ad Litem in May 2014.
Ms. Merritt as a speaker for the National Center for the Victims of Crime co-authored and presented Civil Actions for Victims of Crime in Texas in Dallas, Texas in 2014, a seminar for professionals and advocates who work with rape victims including CPS workers, Law enforcement, Rape Crisis Centers advocates and the like.
In 2015 Ms. Merritt was honored by Texas Lawyer as an Extraordinary Minority Attorney.
She is a member in good standing of Dallas Trial Lawyers Association, Dallas Women Lawyers Association, Texas Women Lawyers Association, Dallas Asian-American Bar, Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the National Crime Victims Bar Association and American Association for Justice.
