Tarlock is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the Chicago Kent College of Law in the Illinois Institute of Technology; co-director of the Program in Energy and Environmental Law; Honorary Professor at the International Water Law Institute, University of Dundee, Scotland; and National Associate, National Academy of Sciences. He has taught at the universities of Chicago, Indiana-Bloomington, Michigan, Southern California, Texas, and Utah. In 1985, he was the Raymond F. Rice Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas. He has written and lectured extensively about water allocation law and consulted with private law firms and state and federal agencies, and for governments on water and water-related issues. In 1997, Professor Tarlock was a consultant and report writer for the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission. He holds an A.B. and LL.B. from Stanford University.