Judge Taylor was born in Columbia, South Carolina and is a lifelong resident of Calhoun County.  He resides in Sandy Run, South Carolina along with his wife and two sons.

Judge Taylor graduated from Calhoun Academy in Saint Matthews, South Carolina.  He attended Newberry College and graduated in 1995, Summa Cum Laude, with a B.A. in History.  He received a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1998. At the time of his election to the bench, Judge Taylor was a partner in the Taylor Law Firm LLC located in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Judge Taylor formerly served as an Assistant Prosecutor for the Town of Irmo and as Associate Municipal Judge for the City of West Columbia. He is admitted to practice in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, and all state courts in South Carolina.

Judge Taylor is a member of the South Carolina Bar where he served as the Criminal Law Council section delegate to the House of Delegates and Chair of the Criminal Law Council. He is a former member of the South Carolina Association for Justice, where he served as the Criminal Section Chair, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the South Carolina Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where he served two terms as President and as chair of the Legislative Committee, the National College for DUI Defense, and the DUI Defense Lawyers Association.

Judge Taylor served as the South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman’s designee to the South Carolina Sentencing Reform Oversight Committee from 2017 to 2019.  In 2012, he was named to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list for DUI and named to the South Carolina Super Lawyers list for DUI in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

He was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly on February 2, 2022 to fill the seat of the Honorable Edgar W. Dickson, resident judge for the First Judicial Circuit, Seat 1, upon his retirement.