handout
The organization and nonprofit that regulates the practice of law in Arizona has sworn in the first Black president in its 90-year history.
A Tucson native, Benjamin Taylor went to Sahuaro High School and graduated from the University of Arizona law school in 2004 before beginning his law career in Maricopa County.
Sworn in as president of the Arizona State Bar on June 16 in Tucson, Taylor said he hopes he will pave the way for other people of color. When he first joined the state bar, there were not many people of color participating and he never thought the position of president could be his, he said.
“You look on the board and there wasn’t anybody I could relate to as far as a person of color,” he said. “I just didn’t think it was my pathway or my career path to do it. Then I realized I can take action. I can be the one who helps trailblaze and be that first person.”
Despite the lack of diversity when Taylor began on the board in 2017, the board has become more diverse since then, Taylor said.
He credits this to the Bar Leadership Institute, which trains future bar members and offers them networking opportunities, training, community awareness and other skills to help them better serve their diverse communities.
Having a diverse group of judges and lawyers will help members of the bar and the justice system better serve the community, he said.
“People want to see a fair and just system. And the way to achieve that is by working on a diverse bar,” Taylor said.
Taylor spent his early life, some college years in Tucson
Growing up in Tucson with his mother, a math teacher at Tucson Unified School District, and his father, a Vietnam veteran in the U.S. Air Force, helped him develop a solid foundation in life to go after his goals, he said.
Before finding law, Taylor worked in finance and thought he dreamed of working on Wall Street. But after feeling unfulfilled in a finance career, he made the switch to law so he could help more people.
After studying at the University of Arizona and interning at the Pima County Attorney’s Office, Taylor took a job at the Maricopa County Office of the Public Defender so that he could have a hands-on approach to helping the community.
“This gave me an opportunity to actually sit down and talk to clients, listen to clients and strategize with clients,” he said.
Taylor has dealt with cases of inequality in the justice system
To help even more people and increase the types of cases he works on, Taylor decided to start his own firm. Eventually, he merged with his law partner Dominic Gomez to form Taylor and Gomez, LLP, to help even more people.
Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic
In his career, Taylor said he has seen firsthand equity issues in the court system. One case in particular involved a woman he represented who was accused of shoplifting baby formula and diapers. Because she had a prior conviction, the prosecution wanted to give her jail time.
He saw how the justice system used people’s past against them, instead of focusing on what they are currently doing with their lives.
“It really broke my heart. I realized how the system really needed to change,” he said.
It reminded him that not only does everyone deserve defense under the U.S. Constitution, but everyone deserves to have a good defense attorney, or else they could go to prison for a long time.
A defining moment in his career was a case in 2021 that received national attention when his firm defended Yessenia Garcia. The woman had been wrongfully arrested for a hit-and-run that she had proof she did not commit. She won a lawsuit for $200,000 earlier this year.
The Arizona Republic
Taylor has seen many injustices and is passionate about improving the state’s justice system and making sure the system is fair.
He said the state needs prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges to come together to revise the justice system to make sure it is fair to 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 Office of the Maricopa County Public Defender, worked with Taylor, who at the time was an attorney in the trial division while she was a law clerk in 2006.
She recalled when she first started at the office, he was welcoming and took time out of his day to introduce her to the office and explain why the work they do is important.
“He quickly became a sounding board and somebody you could trust to have conversations about where you were working to grow and what you want to do in your career,” Garcia said.
Nick Oza/The Republic
She said Taylor is someone who would take time to say hi and catch up with former colleagues and acquaintances at social events, and try to get people involved in the profession, like opportunities to participate in state bar leadership positions or community organizations looking for help from an attorney.
“He always seems genuinely interested in conducting the profession as a whole to serve the community,” Garcia said.
As a Latina, she noticed there were very few attorneys who were people of color. She valued Taylor’s mentorship and seeing another person of color succeeding in the field.
“As a fellow minority in this work, it meant a lot to see representation, even with somebody that was a few steps ahead in their career of where I was,” she said.
She also noted what a big accomplishment this was for the Black community in the profession.
“I don’t think that we have ever seen somebody in this top position with the state bar, who is African American,” Garcia said. “I think looking at like Black bar representation is huge to be able to see that in this type of position.”
According to the National Association for Law Placement, in 2020, people of color only made up 26% of associates in U.S. law firms, which increased from previous years.
In 2022, Black people only made up 4.5% of lawyers in the U.S., according to the American Bar Association. The association noted that about half of all state bars and licensing agencies track race and ethnicity in the profession, with 26 states reporting in 2022.
Taylor hopes to bring the state Bar to communities
Sean Logan/The Republic
Now that he is the president of the Arizona Bar Association, he wants to continue making the bar more diverse by not only attracting attorneys of different ethnicities but also of different genders, backgrounds, nationalities, ages and more.
To do this, the Bar needs to go out into the communities, rural as much as urban, and to schools, Taylor said.
During his one-year term, Taylor wants to educate youth and the general community about the justice system, and the Arizona Bar Association’s mission and services.
The state Bar has a range of services from free legal advice to continuing education for its attorneys.
He hopes that by going out into the community and to schools, the bar association can help inspire today’s youth to help recruit more Arizonans to consider becoming an attorney or judge in the future
“If young students and children see it, they can become it and believe it,” he said.
Reach the reporter at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com. The Republic’s coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. To support regional Arizona news coverage like this, make a tax deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.