[3] After serving as a law clerk for Judge Morell Edward Sharp of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tallman worked as a trial lawyer for the Department of Justice and as an assistant United States attorney in Seattle, Washington.

[4][3] Among Tallman's higher-profile clients in private practice was representing the Seattle Mariners in legal disputes over scheduling rights in the Kingdome.

[4] Clinton's previous nominee to that seat, conservative Washington State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Durham, had been nominated in January 1999 as part of a bipartisan deal brokered by Washington's senators at the time, Slade Gorton and Patty Murray.

[4] Despite being a Republican,[1] Tallman was nominated by President Bill Clinton on October 20, 1999, to fill the seat vacated by Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, who assumed senior status in 1998.

Tallman dissented on the issue of whether San Francisco jails could strip search those detained for minor, non-violent offenses, contending that they should be able to do so due to security needs: "When people are dying as a result of our errant jurisprudence, it is time to correct the course of our law."