Seeking Justice for Victims
Federal prosecutor works for victims and families
By R.G. Smithson
Reagan M. Taylor’s (LAW ’05) passion for helping others dates back to her teenage years at home in Memphis, Tennessee, when she was actively involved with her local NAACP chapter. These days, her passion lies in securing justice for victims of homicides and other violent crimes as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
After more than two years as a Presidential Management Fellow with the Drug Enforcement Administration in the U.S. Department of Justice after graduation, Taylor joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. She quickly moved from trying misdemeanor bench trials to prosecuting felony jury trials, and she was recently promoted to Senior A.U.S.A. in the homicide division of the office. She spends her days interviewing witnesses, going to crime scenes, doing legal research, and, ultimately, trying the cases in court.
“This is a very fast-paced office,” Taylor says. “I am still young enough and have the energy to get this job done, and I am where I should be at this stage of my life.”
After graduation, Taylor was ready to make an even bigger difference. Chosen as a Presidential Management Fellow, she worked primarily in diversion litigation with the chief counsel’s office at DEA, but she also completed details with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and as counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I sought out an opportunity to influence drug and crime policy and law, and found the perfect position with Senator Biden as counsel to the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs,” Taylor says.
Upon her departure from his staff, Senator Biden wrote in the Congressional Record that thanks to Taylor’s “invaluable contribution [to the Subcommittee] we have succeeded in reauthorizing the Office of National Drug Control Policy and our fight against the scourge of methamphetamine has been bolstered.”
But it is with the U.S. Attorney’s office that she has had the greatest impact.
“They tell me I have moved pretty swiftly through this office,” Taylor says. “It usually takes several years to get the kind of cases I get now, and I have only been here about three years. It is quite an honor and I feel fortunate to be where I am.”
Her commitment to her community goes beyond her professional accomplishments. Taylor serves as a mentor at Thurgood Marshall Charter High School and as a volunteer with Project L.E.A.D. (Legal Enrichment and Decision Making)—where she teaches fifth-graders not only the basics of the legal system, but also good decision making and life skills. She has recently been invited to speak to teenage girls as part of a panel at the Emerging Young Leaders symposium sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.
Looking ahead, Reagan says she would like to be a judge someday, but her “retirement job” will likely be as an educator. “Dean Blaze and Jerry Black had a big impact on me. It was there [UT Law] that I realized I could have a voice for someone whose own voice may never be heard. As an educator, I would hope to have that same impact on future young lawyers.”
Name: Reagan M. Taylor
Age: 33
Location: Washington, D.C.
Employment: U.S. Attorney’s Office
Focus: Assistant U.S. Attorney Federal Prosecutor
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Read this story and more online at issuu.com or download the fall 2011 issue of Tennessee Law (pdf).