Andy Taylor

Founder, Senior Partner

Phone: (713) 222-1817 x11
Email: ataylor@andytaylorlaw.com

Andy Taylor, who Texas Monthly named “one of the 25 most powerful people in Texas politics,” is a formidable trial and appellate attorney. Described as the top election lawyer—both in Texas and in America—Taylor enjoys a high-profile career and an impressive list of clients and courtroom victories.  A powerful courtroom orator, he takes a unique and successful approach to law and politics.

Mr. Taylor’s unparalleled credentials include having served as the First Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas, where he was responsible for managing and operating all aspects of a 4,000 person state agency, including oversight of a biennium budget of over $656 million. Both before and after his tenure of government service, he also served as a law partner for a major Houston law firm. In 2003, Mr. Taylor founded his own private law practice. Over the course of his 30 year career, he accomplished a feat that few lawyers have accomplished--two oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court. 

In recent years, Mr. Taylor received national and international media attention for his representation of plaintiffs in  the two most significant lawsuits brought against the City of Houston during the tenure of former Mayor Annise Parker. Winning both cases with unanimous Texas Supreme Court decisions, Mr. Taylor successfully defeated a billion dollar rain tax for Houston taxpayers and secured the voting rights of over a million Houstonians on whether to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO. 

Mr. Taylor has also spent a large part of his illustrious career helping clients resolve controversial political issues. Because of the intense public interest in Mr. Taylor’s cases, he has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC and CBS, including notable segments with Fox News icon Megyn Kelly, CBS Morning Show’s Bryant Gumbel, NBC’s Brian Williams and Dr. Drew on CNN.  . 

“He’s the troubleshooting lawyer for Republicans whose political problems become legal problems,” Texas Monthly wrote of Mr. Taylor.

After graduating first in his class from St. Mary’s University School of Law, Mr. Taylor secured a clerkship at the Texas Supreme Court for then-Chief Justice John Hill and then for  then-Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips.  After his two clerkships, Mr. Taylor went on to work for a major Houston law firm for 12 years, specializing in election law and public policy litigation.

When Texas Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn was elected Texas Attorney General, Mr. Taylor left private practice to become his First Assistant. During his tenure with the Attorney General, Mr. Taylor worked on a wide range of major cases, including a dispute over the multibillion-dollar lawyer fees in Texas’ tobacco settlement, numerous death penalty cases, and a Polk County voter rights dispute. He also personally represented then-Gov. George W. Bush in the Florida election recount, famously known as Bush v. Gore.

Mr. Taylor later worked for then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay to help defend a Republican-backed congressional redistricting map. He also successfully represented then-Vice President Dick Cheney in an 11th Amendment eligibility challenge  and oversaw the statewide ballot security effort for then-Gov. Rick Perry’s reelection campaign.

In private practice, Mr. Taylor has represented a range of top-tier large companies, including IBM, American Traffic Solutions Inc., Pacific Care, Verizon, and Palmaz Scientific, Inc., where he represented famed inventor Dr. Julio Palmaz in his efforts to develop and market his life-changing technologies that will save millions of lives. 

Mr. Taylor grew up in San Antonio where his father, a vice president at Trinity University, introduced him to politics and the San Antonio Spurs. His passion for both continues.
 

2003—Present

Senior Partner, Founder — Andy Taylor & Associates, P.C.
Houston, Texas

Trial practice (complex commercial litigation, election litigation, general litigation); Appellate practice (State and Federal Supreme and intermediate courts); general representation before government agencies.

2001—2003

Partner — Locke, Liddell & Sapp, L.L.P.
Houston, Texas

1999—2001

First Assistant Attorney General — Office of the Attorney General of the State of Texas
Austin, Texas

Responsible for managing and operating all aspects of 4,000 person agency, including oversight of a biennium budget of over $656 million.

• Argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Texas in Johnny Paul Penry v. Gary L. Johnson (2001).
• Argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Texas and ten other states in Gail Atwater v. City of Lago Vista (2000).
• Lead counsel for the State of Texas in State of Texas v. Marion “Bid” Smith (2000) (state law challenge to 9,300 Polk County citizens’ right to vote).
• Lead counsel for the State of Texas in Public Citizen, Inc. v. Elton Bomer, Secretary of State (2000) (federal constitutional challenge to Texas’ system of election of judges).
• Lead counsel for the State of Texas in PTI v. Philip Morris (1999) (antitrust challenge to Texas’ tobacco settlement).
• Lead counsel for the State of Texas in The State of Texas v. The American Tobacco Company, et al. (1999) (Texas’ tobacco litigation).
• Lead counsel for the State of Texas in Bobby Watson v. The State of Texas (1999) (purported class action suit by Medicaid recipients for smoking-related illnesses to obtain economic benefits of Texas’ tobacco settlement).
• Lead counsel for the University of Texas in Cliff Gustafson v. DeLoss Dodds (1999) (suit by former baseball coach of UT alleging fraud).

1988

1987—1988

CAses argued before the united states supreme court

USSC #00-6677, Johnny Paul Penry, Petitioner v. Gary L. Johnson, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division

USSC #99-1408 Gail Atwater, Et Al., Petitioners v. City of Lago Vista, Et Al.

public service projects

Program Director and Founder — Supreme Team: Layin’ Down the Law
A statewide public service program for high school seniors about the U.S. Constitution through the “eyes” of the U.S. Supreme Court. This program was featured on the front cover of the February 1998 issue of the Texas Bar Journal, and was a featured program at the American Bar Association Mid-Year Convention in La Jolla, California, May 1998. This project won First Place, Service to the Public Category, American Bar Association.

Seminars

Program Director and Founder — Lawyering Into the 21st Century
A Houston and Dallas seminar sponsored by the Texas Young Lawyers Association Lawyering Into the 21st Century Committee, March 1997. This seminar won First Place, Service to the Profession Category, American Bar Association.

Program Director and Founder — Choosing and Courting a Jury
San Antonio, Dallas and Houston seminars co-sponsored by the Professional Development Department of the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Young Lawyers Association Administration of Justice Committee, 1994-1996.

Publications

Legal

United States Supreme Court

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Texas Eastern District Court

Texas Northern District Court

Texas Southern District / Bankruptcy Court

Texas Western District Court