Taylor Brown is an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James. Taylor’s work in the CRB involves the enforcement of Federal and New York State constitutional and statutory civil rights laws and protections, through investigations and affirmative and defensive litigations. Taylor’s current portfolio includes investigations and litigations concerning unlawful and discriminatory policing patterns and practices; unlawful discrimination against transgender women and girls in places of public accommodations and housing; unlawful race and disability-based discipline disparities in public schools; challenges concerning deceptive and false advertising practices concerning abortion pill reversal; and combatting the current federal administration’s attacks on civil rights and democracy.

Taylor has specific interest and expertise in constitutional law, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare, and civil litigation. Prior to joining the NYOAG, Taylor spent almost 7 years at Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund and the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ+ & HIV Project. At Lambda Legal and the ACLU, Taylor led impact litigations nationwide advancing the constitutional and statutory civil rights protections for transgender people, with a focus on healthcare equity and access, prisoner rights, education, and employment. Taylor was lead counsel in several key victories for transgender rights, including Thomas, et al. v. Georgia Dept of Community Health, et al. (removing the exclusion of gender-affirming surgical care in the State of Georgia’s Medicaid plan); Iglesias v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (requiring the recission of the Trump Transgender Offender manual and marking the first time a federal district court ordered the BOP to provider multiple gender affirming surgeries for an incarcerated transgender woman); Hersom v. Crouch (requiring the State of West Virginia to safely and accurately issue name and gender marker birth certificate amendments to transgender West Virginians); and Kadel, et al. v. Folwell, et al. and Fletcher v. State of Alaska (litigations removing gender affirming healthcare exclusions in the state employee health plans of North Carolina and Alaska).

Taylor is the first transgender woman hired as an Assistant Attorney General in the NYOAG; the first transgender woman hired as a staff attorney at ACLU National; and the first bi-racial black transgender woman hired as a staff attorney at Lambda Legal. Outside of her work responsibilities, Taylor serves as Co-Chair of the New York Lawyers’ Chapter of the American Constitution Society. Taylor has won numerous awards and recognition for her advocacy and is a nationally featured public speaker. She has given over 70 presentations to law schools, businesses, governmental bodies, professional conferences, and other entities. Taylor is a first-generation graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.