Alpha Taylor

If you’re going to be an effective advocate, you have to get to know the communities that you intend to serve. You’ll fight harder if you know the people you’re fighting for.

I went to law school because I wanted to be in a profession that focused on helping others, and consumer law has allowed me to do that. I wake up every morning excited to come to work, and I go to sleep every night knowing that what I do is making a difference in someone’s life.

We live in a country that is systematically unfair to minorities and low-income people, and I try to do the best I can to advocate for communities that have gotten the short end of the stick. Housing work is especially close to my heart because it’s a way to fight back against generations of housing segregation, redlining, and other discriminatory housing practices. Homeownership is a foundation for building long-term generational wealth in communities of color, so I see my fight as a consumer attorney as being not just about getting justice for my clients, but about making sure they aren’t cheated out of opportunities to build wealth because of a wrongful foreclosure.

I recently represented an older woman who contacted us after a foreclosure judgement had already been entered on her house, and the bank was moving for a court order to sell the property. She had modified her home over the years to make it more accessible for her disabled grandson, who had lived there his whole life. So losing that home meant more than having to move to another house on the block — it meant her grandson would lose his mobility and freedom. Before the foreclosure, the servicer told her that her only option was a short sale, but I found out that she had an FHA loan and was eligible for a loan modification based on her income. We were able to intervene just in time and keep her and her grandson in the home — I couldn’t have asked for a better result.

Read Alpha’s Bio