You hear the term “veteran attorney” and what do you think? It actually carries two meanings.
One image that comes to mind is that of a legal eagle with years of experience and vast knowledge of the system the saltiest of salts who’s represented many a client and won the hearts and minds of judges and juries anywhere they go.
The other is an attorney who is a veteran of the armed forces, which is exactly what Scott Taylor is.
Having practiced law for 10 years, Taylor has spent time as a prosecutor and defense attorney in several states and overseas.
He recently returned from Japan serving as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) for the Air Force, where he prosecuted airmen accused of sexual assault. He also spent two years defending airmen at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Taylor’s still in the Air Force, although he serves as a reservist. His military service came by way of a Gulf War veteran he represented in Kansas City. The judge in the case asked Taylor why he hadn’t served. He couldn’t come up with a valid answer, and signed up in 2010, earning a commission in the Air Force JAG corps.
Before the Air Force, Taylor was defending clients in Kansas City, Mo. Because the city sits on the border of Missouri and Kansas, he had to pass the bar exam in each state in order to practice law in the city.
He earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2005 and joined the Kansas City Public Defender’s Office in 2006. He won his very first trial—a murder trial—before he turned 30.
Last year he opened his own firm—the Taylor Defense Firm—in San Luis Obispo.
His firm is located in an old Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house on Monterey Street. He provides criminal defense services and represents clients from Paso Robles to Lompoc. He also offers pro bono (free) or reduced rate legal services for military veterans who are accused of a variety of crimes, such as DUIs and off-base misconduct. He also does a little bit of family law on the side.
Tapping into his experience in Japan, Taylor wants to help Cal Poly set up an anti-sexual assault program and spread awareness.
“We can educate our way out of that,” Taylor said. “There’s so much misinformation being spread around.”
Having served on both sides of the court, he knows all too well how aggressive the government can get in seeking justice. But by the same token, he counters with an equally aggressive defense.
“Once the machinery is against you, it’s really hard to turn that off,” Taylor said.
This aggressiveness may be why he keeps on winning trials. He’s no Kevin Lomax (from the movie, Devil’s Advocate), but he tells the Sun that he hasn’t lost a trial since January 2013—although he’s only tried one case in all of 2014.
Highlights
• Hardy Diagnostics, the Santa Maria manufacturer of microbiological medical devices, is now 100 percent employee-owned. The company announced this on Oct. 8, after the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) purchased the remaining 30 percent of company shares. As an employee-owned company, Hardy Diagnostics is not obligated to outside shareholders who care about the bottom line instead of the company itself, a company representative said in a press release. According to Hardy Diagnostics sales representative Christian Alduenda, working for an employee-owned company “drives us to want to work harder since we get to be a part of the decision-making process.” In other words, when a company is successful, the employees reap the benefits. Hardy Diagnostics is among 2,500 companies in the country that are 100 percent employee-owned, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership.
Staff Writer David Minsky wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2015.
