Ryan Tack-Hooper joined Terrell Marshall Law Group in 2020. He has led successful civil rights litigation across the country in state and federal courts, including cases involving discrimination on the basis of disability, religion, speech, and race. On behalf of consumers and workers, he has taken on powerful companies like Amazon and won, helping to certify class actions challenging a wide variety of corporate abusive practices—from deceptive insurance schemes to illegal harvesting of patient data. 

Previous Experience

• Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware
• Adjunct professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Staff Attorney, Council on American-Islamic Relations of Pennsylvania
• Associate, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller
• Law Clerk to the Honorable Jerome B. Simandle, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

Education

• New York University School of Law, J.D. (cum laude)
  • Executive Editor, Journal of International Law and Politics
  • Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow
  • Fellow, South Brooklyn Legal Services, assisting with challenges to consumer debt collection schemes
• Lewis & Clark College, B.A. (cum laude)

Bar Admissions

• Washington
• Delaware
• Pennsylvania (inactive)

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, District of Delaware

Professional Recognition

• State of Delaware Senate Tribute for work as Legal Director of the ACLU of Delaware

Professional Organizations and Activities

• Washington Employment Lawyers Association, member
• Washington State Association for Justice, member and legislative advocate

Case Highlights

Civil Rights

• Delawareans for Educational Opportunity v. Carney—Co-lead counsel in constitutional challenge to inadequate education system in Delaware, winning an historic ruling that Delaware’s Constitution requires adequate education funding, and prevailing at trial in showing that Delaware’s system of property tax assessment were short-changing schools. The successful case brought millions of dollars in additional funding to schools most in need.
• Bensalem Masjid Inc. v. Bensalem Township—Successful challenge to the discriminatory denial of zoning permits for the construction of the first mosque in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania.

Class Actions

• Gambles v. Sterling Infosystems, Inc.—Working with co-counsel, Terrell Marshall recovered $15 million for a certified class of consumers who were subjected to improper background reports.
• Wright v. City of Wilmington—Successful class action representation of residents arrested pursuant to an unconstitutional detention policy, leading to reform of the police department’s stop and arrest policies and training.

Publications and Press

Ryan Tack-Hooper, Introduction: Corporate Power and Discrimination by Algorithm, Discrimination 2.0: How Social Media Platforms Are Assisting Prejudice, ACLU CLE (Jan. 2019)

Ryan Tack-Hooper, No, the Government Cannot Censor Social Media, Opinion Editorial, The News Journal (Mar. 2018)

Ryan Tack-Hooper & Richard Morse, Ethical issues and Considerations in Cases Which Involve a Representative Plaintiff, Delaware State Bar Association Office and Trial Practice 2018 (Nov. 2018)

Ryan Tack-Hooper, Book Annotation, Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking, 40 Journal of International Law and Politics 1091 (2008)