The organization and nonprofit that regulates the legal practice of Arizona has become the first black president in its 90-year history.

A native of Tucson, Benjamin Taylor attended Saguaro High School, graduated from the University of Arizona Law School in 2004, and began his legal career in Maricopa County.

Taylor, who was sworn in as president of the Arizona Bar Association on June 16 in Tucson, said he hopes to pave the way for other people of color. When he first joined the state bar, he said there weren’t many people of color in it and he never thought the presidency would be his.

“When I looked at the board of directors, there wasn’t a single person who could identify with me in terms of being a person of color,” he said. “I never thought it was my way or my career path. And then I realized I could take action. I could help pioneers and be the first to do so.”

Taylor said the board lacked diversity when he joined the board in 2017, but has since become more diverse.

He attributes this to the Attorney Leadership Institute, which trains prospective attorneys to provide networking opportunities, training, community awareness and other skills to better serve their diverse communities. .

Diverse groups of judges and lawyers enable lawyers and members of the justice system to better serve their communities, he said.

“People want fair and just systems, and the way to achieve that is to work on a diverse bar,” Taylor said.

Taylor spent her childhood and college years in Tucson.

Growing up in Tucson with his mother, a math teacher in the Tucson Unified School District, and his father, a Vietnam Air Force veteran, helped him lay a solid life foundation to achieve his goals, he said. .

Before studying law, Taylor worked in the financial industry and thought he dreamed of working on Wall Street. However, after he felt his career in finance was not fulfilling, he turned to the legal industry to help more people.

After studying at the University of Arizona and interning with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, Taylor joined the Maricopa County Defender’s Office so she could take a hands-on approach to helping her community.

“This gave us the opportunity to actually sit down and talk to our clients, listen to them and strategize with them,” he said.

Taylor has addressed cases of inequality in the justice system

To help more people and increase the variety of cases handled, Taylor decided to set up his own firm. Eventually, he merged with his legal partner Dominic Gomez to form Taylor & Gomez LLP to help even more people.

During his career, Taylor said he has seen first-hand the issue of impartiality in the court system. In particular, a woman he represented was accused of shoplifting baby formula and diapers. Her prosecution wanted to give her her prison sentence because she had a criminal record.

He witnessed how the justice system uses people’s pasts against them instead of focusing on what they are doing now with their lives.

“It was really heartbreaking. I realized we really needed to change the system,” he said.

It reminded him that not only is everyone entitled to a defense under the U.S. Constitution, but everyone is entitled to a good defense attorney or end up in prison. Maybe.

A defining moment in his career came in 2021 when his firm defended Yesenia Garcia, a case that received national attention. A woman was wrongfully arrested for hit-and-run, but there was evidence of her innocence. She won a lawsuit seeking $200,000 earlier this year.

Taylor has seen a lot of injustice and is passionate about improving the state’s justice system and ensuring it is fair.

He said states need prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges to come together to review the judicial system and make sure it’s fair for everyone.

Taylor reiterated that part of the bar association’s mission is to increase access to justice. The organization has an ethics hotline, member assistance programs, and continuing education for attorneys.

Lina Garcia, deputy director of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, worked with Taylor, then an attorney in the trial division, when she was a legal clerk in 2006.

She remembers that when he first started working in the office, he was welcoming and took time out of his day to introduce her to the office and explain why their work was important. I was.

“He quickly became a mentor and someone I could trust to discuss where I was working to grow and what I wanted to do with my career,” Garcia said.

She said Taylor took the time to greet people at social events, catch up with former colleagues and acquaintances, and seek leadership positions in state attorneys and the support of community groups, among other opportunities to encourage people to enter the profession. He said he was the one who tried to get him to join the lawyer.

“He always seems genuinely interested in pursuing his entire profession to serve his community,” Garcia said.

Being Latino, she found very few lawyers of color. She appreciated Taylor’s guidance and seeing another person of color succeed in the field.

“As a fellow minority involved in this work, it meant a lot to me to see representation, even for those who were a few steps ahead of me in their careers,” she said.

She also said this is a great achievement for the black community in the profession.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an African-American in such a high position in a state court,” Garcia said. About your position. ”

In 2020, only 26% of U.S. law firm employees were people of color, according to the National Bar Association, up from the previous year.

By 2022, only 4.5% of American lawyers will be black, according to the American Bar Association. The association noted that about half of all state attorneys and licensing agencies track race and ethnicity in the profession, with 26 states reporting by 2022.

Taylor wants to bring state attorneys into the community

Now that he is president of the Arizona Bar Association, he wants to make the bar even more diverse by attracting lawyers of different ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, nationalities and ages. there is

To do this, lawyers need to reach out into rural communities and schools as well as urban areas, Taylor said.

During his one-year term, Taylor hopes to educate young people and the general public about the justice system and the mission and services of the Arizona Bar Association.

State bar associations offer a wide range of services, from free legal advice to continuing education for attorneys.

He hopes that the bar association’s outreach to communities and schools will inspire today’s youth and help recruit more Arizonans to consider becoming lawyers and judges in the future.

“If young students and children see this, they will be the person and they will be able to believe it,” he said.

Here’s where to contact reporters: sarah.lapidus@gannett.com. The Republic’s Southern Arizona coverage is partially funded by a grant from Report for America. To support local news coverage in Arizona like this one, make a tax-deductible donation. supportjournalism.azcentral.com.