CUNY School of Law graduate Jimmy Taylor is Staff Attorney for the New York Legal Assistance Group's (NYLAG) Southern District of New York Pr Se Legal Clinic.  He first joined PLAN in June 2020 as one of nine Fellows assigned to support PLAN’s COVID-19 Campaign in association with the Harvard Law School Systemic Justice Project’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Institute. As a PLAN Law Clerk for the Summer 2020 Term, Jimmy analyzed COVID-19 conditions in prisons and jails in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. On the basis of his investigation of facts, interviews with incarcerated affiants, and the outcomes of a public records request, he developed legal arguments and strategies for challenging COVID-19 conditions of confinement in these states and in federal courts in the Fourth Circuit. Jimmy presented preliminary findings and analysis with supporting source materials PLAN’s 2020 Continuing Legal Education program that set forth legal strategies for challenging pandemic conditions in U.S. prisons and jails.

Jimmy continued his work with PLAN for externship credit as a Senior Clerk for the Autumn 2020 Term in order to perfect his analysis of COVID-19 prison conditions and expand it to jurisdictions such as Maryland. Following further work with PLAN during the Spring 2021 semester, Jimmy went on to work full-time with PLAN as a Supervisory Senior Clerk during the Summer of 2021. It was during this period of full-time contributions to the COVID-19 Campaign that Jimmy became integrally involved in conceptualizing and developing the project plan for the Jailhouse Law Library initiative. 

While at CUNY Law, Jimmy served as a student government representative and participated in moot court. He was also an Anti-Displacement Extern with the Community Economic Development Clinic and Urban Justice Center Safety Net Project. In that capacity, he helped prepare court documents and exhibits for homeless clients’ tort cases against the City of New York. He also prepared know-your-rights materials for undomiciled New Yorkers as a legal intern for Stop the Sweeps NYC. Jimmy completed his undergraduate degree at Oberlin College in 2014. While at Oberlin, he served as a Policy Assistant with the ACLU of Washington, DC. 

During Jimmy’s years of sustained contributions to PLAN as a Law Clerk, he gained considerable experience with PLAN’s crowd-sourced approach to expanding legal capacity and the organization’s unique prisoner-led model. His sustained PLAN work also afforded him opportunities to develop meaningful working relationships with the jailhouse lawyers, volunteer attorneys, and partners who help forge and implement PLAN initiatives. Jimmy’s instrumental role in developing JLL project parameters renders him uniquely well-positioned to advance this initiative with the assistance and support of the wider PLAN community. Jimmy’s work with PLAN and CUNY Law School’s Community Economic Development Clinic has equipped him with important skills in working with directly impacted people to develop legal materials that are directly responsive to their self- articulated legal priorities and needs. 

Jimmy intends to use his law degree to fight for economic, social and political change. He continues his work as a member of the Jailhouse Law Library team as a pro bono JLL attorney and member of the JLL Advisory Board.