Much Shelist Launches Miami Office, Creates Innovation-Focused Practice With Actuate Law Team

Chicago-based law firm Much Shelist launched a new practice and is joined by five attorneys from Actuate Law, four in Chicago and one in Miami, expanding Much’s presence in Florida. The new practice focuses on emerging technology, AI, financial services, fintech, data privacy and security.

The practice, led by Dara Tarkowski, former managing partner at Actuate Law, is also joined by attorneys Andrea Halverson, Stacy Rodriguez, Maureen Ryan and James Ward. Formerly at Actuate alongside Tarkowski, the tech innovation, data & financial regulation practice is set to expand the firm’s capabilities to help clients navigate incredibly complex legal and regulatory environments.

“Pretty much every business and industry these days is leaning into artificial intelligence … that’s something that obviously, we see ourselves, our clients see it,” said Courtney Mayster, Much managing partner. “It made a lot of sense, from that standpoint, to bring these capabilities in-house, and we were thinking along those lines.”

This is the second wave of recent hires for Much: In October 2025, the firm welcomed attorneys and professionals from Fenton Jurkowitz Law Group to enhance its industry-leading Health Care practice and establish a Los Angeles office, according to a news release.

Tarkowski, a former Big Law attorney, had been working within Chicago’s market for close to 20 years, said she watched her clients sort of grow and evolve in their success, prompting her to have a need to be able to offer them more robust transactional services than she was able to provide them at her previous firm, Actuate.

She co-founded Actuate Law in 2018 with “a team of Big Law veterans to break away from the traditional, often cost-prohibitive, legal model and create a more efficient, entrepreneurial approach to legal services.”

“It just seemed like a very organic, natural fit. And the more we kept talking, the more sense it made to me. At the end of the day, we are service providers,” Tarkowski said. “Not only is it a good decision for me and my team, who have all been welcomed here with open arms and then some, but it’s a really good decision for my clients, and those clients are the ones that drive most of the decisions we make here as service providers. So clients first, that’s always been my motto, and this is the right decision for them.”

Tarkowski’s team brings decades of experience in financial services and fintech, digital assets and crypto, data privacy and security, information governance, artificial intelligence, advocacy, and litigation, according to a news release.

Much will take over Actuate Law’s Miami office, expanding its presence in Florida. The firm has an attorney in Naples, one in Orlando, and has been talking to groups and attorneys throughout the state, according to Mayster.

“Having a presence in Florida has always been part of the Much strategic plan … honing in on a location that made sense for us has taken some time, but a lot of people from the Chicago area spend months of the year in Florida, and particularly in South Florida,” Mayster said. “It makes a lot of sense for Much to have a presence in Florida. And this, with the addition of Dara and her team, and already having an office in the Wynwood area, it just fell into our lap. We’re really happy with how this all evolved and really happened for us organically.”