Leah Brownlee Taylor, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor and Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was featured in Law360 Pulse, in “Epstein Becker Green Adds Acting GC of Marshals Service,” by Jack Rogers. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Epstein Becker Green has hired the former acting general counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice's U.S. Marshals Service, who spent over 14 ½ years with the agency and earlier in her career there litigated constitutional and specialized torts and other matters as a trial counsel, the firm announced Thursday.
Leah Brownlee Taylor has joined Epstein Becker's employment, labor and workforce management practice, in Washington, D.C. She'll work as a member and defend clients in employment and civil rights litigation, the firm said.
As acting general counsel at the U.S. Marshals Service, Taylor resolved Title VII class action litigation and employment disputes, the firm said. She helped oversee legal and policy compliance matters related to employment, professional responsibility, ethics and investigative matters.
The firm said Taylor also worked as the deputy general counsel at the U.S. Marshals Service, and as a senior trial attorney. She joined the DOJ in 2011 as a member of the Constitutional and Specialized Tort Litigation Section of the DOJ's Civil Division.
A Rutgers Law School graduate, Taylor worked for more than four years as the assistant attorney general of the equity civil litigation division at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, before joining the Justice Department.
In an interview with Law360 Pulse on Friday, Taylor said her role with Epstein Becker Green was her first in private practice outside of a summer associate position she had while in law school.
Transitioning to private practice was natural for Taylor, she said, with her previous litigation experience at the DOJ, and her role helping manage an international law agency in the U.S. Marshals Service, as acting general counsel.
"I think when you gain that experience and wide breadth of national and international practice, you realize that you have various skill sets and talents that can easily transition into other industries and places," Taylor said. "It's really kind of like the evolution of my personal journey and practice of law."
Taylor was drawn to Epstein Becker Green because of the firm's legacy, she said. Taylor said she can trace her family history back in America to the 1700s and said she believes in using her work and law “as a positive vehicle for the promotion of positive change, and shaping our legal landscape in this country."
Taylor wanted to join Epstein Becker Green also because of its wealth of legal talent. Former acting Attorney General Stuart M. Gerson, for example, works at the firm as a partner, Taylor noted.
Taylor knew Epstein Becker Green's 50-year history and said her role as acting general counsel at the U.S. Marshals Service was centered around serving as an in-house counsel for the agency, helping them tackle their most complicated workplace challenges.
Through my national practice and my time in Washington, I just became familiar with the firm’s attorneys, and their work and it was that," Taylor said. "It was that legacy, and the tremendous legal talent that really convinced me to join."
She added: "I think it's important when you're in government service, to really transition to a place where it's a good cultural fit, too, and as a former senior executive and a litigator, it was really important to me to not only work with and alongside respected advocates, but really find that right cultural fit."
David W. Garland, chair of the firm's employment, labor and workforce management steering committee, said in a statement that Taylor's command of government investigations and regulatory frameworks was what "clients need in today's environment."
"She has honed her strategic approach to risk management and commitment to client defense through years of high-level government service, making her a valuable addition to our practice,” Garland said in a statement.
