Elizabeth (“Liza”) W. Tarbell enjoys grappling with large-scale, structural dilemmas and crafting creative solutions. 

Liza joins Keller Rohrback’s complex litigation group as a 2024 graduate of Stanford Law School with pro bono distinction. Given her interest in public health litigation, Liza looks forward to contributing to the group’s efforts to leverage the law for the common good through innovative approaches like multidistrict litigation.

Prior to law school, Liza received a Master of Arts in Regional Studies—East Asia from Harvard University and a B.A. in History and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College. In between, she worked as a James Reston Reporting Fellow at The New York Times, a Fulbright grantee conducting environmental oral history research in Kunming, China, and a grassroots environmental justice organizer in her hometown of New York. Injustices she reported, researched, and sought to collaboratively remediate in each of these roles seemingly all demanded legal solutions. It was through these experiences that Liza came to believe that there might be an alternative, more impactful way she could serve others.  It was then that she decided to go to law school in the hopes of gaining the skill set to aid access to justice.

While at Stanford, Liza was Senior Articles Editor of the Stanford Law Review, Executive Editor of the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Co-President of the Disability and Mental Health Network at Stanford, and Treasurer of Stanford Law Students for Climate Action. Liza also participated in the Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court Competition and was a member of the Stanford Community Law Clinic.

In her free time, Liza enjoys running marathons, listening to podcasts, and baking sourdough bread.