George's wheels to Justice
By Ruth Augustin '15
Published on Tuesday, April 19, 2016
When George Taylor ‘02 decided to go to college he headed over to Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. It wasn’t long before he settled back to Boca Raton, Florida to attend Lynn University instead. “Florida State was a much larger environment, and I just did not do well there. I was looking for a smaller school where if you were absent you would be noticed. I was looking for that one-on-one connection with professors, and I found that at Lynn,” George said.
Like most students though, George was unsure of what he really wanted to do. When he first began college, he considered becoming an engineer. Eventually, he realized that there was something more enticing. He said, “For some reason, I was gravitating towards business; it seemed to make the most sense. It’s really broad what you can do with it.” As George prepared to take the next step to further his career, he was inspired by Dr. Miller who suggested graduate and law school as viable options.
He thought back to what Dr. Miller said to him, “You’re smart, you’re capable and no matter which one you choose – whether you get a graduate or law degree – it won’t be a waste of your time and money. I promise you.” After graduating in 2002 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, he decided to continue working. “I thought about going to law school but never really did anything about it. It was more of a dream. When the economy took a nose drive in 2008 that really forced me to make a career change. So I said you know, I am going to make a change and I might as well do something that I have always wanted to do,” George recalled.
He spent the next three and a half years at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law studying to receive his Juris Doctor. While being a full time evening student, he worked during the day and took classes at night. After law school, he successfully passed the Florida Bar Exam and received his license to practice. “At the same time, the job market was terrible. There were lots of new attorneys with law degrees and bar licenses but not enough jobs,” George explained. That’s when he decided to start his own practice. He said, “Being on your own is not very fun because you’re the attorney, you’re the paralegal, you’re the secretary and in charge of IT. You’re doing everything. But, I was still practicing law and I enjoyed that aspect.” After spending some time in his own practice, George went on to join a practice in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He worked in court nearly everyday handling tremendous amounts of cases, which allowed him to receive more litigation experience.
After balancing this for a while, George later received an opportunity with the law firm Brinkley Morgan. He currently works there practicing Business Litigation to help clients resolve legal problems such as business disputes that come from business and commercial relationships. Though George typically spends over 40-55+ hours a week in the office, every week, day and month is different. “It just depends on what kind of case you’re working on and what’s going on at the moment. If you are working with a reasonable attorney, then it’s unlikely you’ll go to court that often,” he explained. It also depends on the timing of things for the case itself. “Unfortunately the wheels of justice turn slowly, so if you are in litigation, it’s slow to arrive at a final resolution. Genuinely these things go on for a long time,” he noted.
Regardless of the long hours and time that goes into practicing Law, George has enjoyed and continues to enjoy working with his clients to resolve the matters at hand. This is exactly the field that he intends to be in for the future, but he also hopes to eventually be working with a large company in Florida as a General Counsel. “With Litigation, I love the war, I really do. It’s exciting! I love being in the middle of it. When it’s over, it’s depressing. When you complete the war, it’s like you’re missing something – a void. Then of course, another war starts, and you’ll be okay."
For more information on George and the Brinkley Morgan Group click the link below:
http://www.brinkleymorgan.com/profile/george-j-taylorassociate/