AAC welcomes new legal counsel: Taylor Handford
By Christy L. Smith
AAC Communications Director
Well-rounded may well be the best adjective to describe Taylor Handford.
His background is diverse, and his interests are thoughtful. He is no doubt a valuable addition to the AAC’s legal and policy teams.
Handford, who previously worked as an AAC law clerk, officially joined the AAC staff as a legal counsel in August. And he said he couldn’t be happier.
“I’ve worked since I was 15 years old, and this is the first time I’ve ever felt like there’s no need to consider what is next as far as careers go. So, that was a new and pleasant feeling and realization,” Handford said.
Born and raised in Batesville, Handford graduated from Batesville High School — but not before leaving his mark. His competitive streak came out when he entered and won a local spelling bee because he “wanted to beat the kid.” He was on the high school tennis team, which won the conference championship for the first time in a decade. And Handford beat the second, third and fourth seeds. He even danced in a high school production of The Sound of Music “even though it’s not my usual thing.”
Handford holds degrees in political science from the University of Arkansas and criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is a recent graduate of the William H. Bowen School of Law.
Prior to law school, Handford worked in human resources at Walmart, UAMS, and Simmons Bank. He worked as an AAC law clerk during his Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters. That work focused heavily on jails, the Department of Corrections, and the state’s need for a new prison.
He followed that up during the Summer and Fall of 2023 with a clerkship at the Arkansas Municipal League, focusing on district courts and Act 38 of 2023, which required a legislative study of financial matters related to the court system.
Handford returned to the AAC as a law clerk in January 2024, and then transitioned into his current role after taking the bar exam. As legal counsel, he is part of the policy team and is serving as a second liaison to the sheriffs’, judges’ and coroners’ associations. His work thus far has focused on forensic exams and district courts and Act 38 of 2023.
In his spare time, Handford loves to read, something he perhaps inherited from his grandmothers, who were avid readers. His taste runs toward nonfiction, but Handford said he mixes “in a healthy dose of fiction to at least call myself well-rounded.”
He enjoys reading about the Pacific theater of World War II, the late Roman Republic, and Abraham Lincoln.
“I have a particular sentimentality about Abraham Lincoln. I read quite a few books about him, about his time in office, about his spirituality, about his ability to overcome tremendously challenging, sad events and ordeals that are not unique to him, but there’s always this melancholia or depressive mood that Lincoln had. There was a lot of loss in his life, and I find him a very interesting character. I think he was particularly fit for the moment in the American political life that he was born and grew up into,” Handford said.
He loves a good movie soundtrack or score, particularly by Hans Zimmer. And Handford enjoys photography, leaning toward landscapes, buildings, and flowers.
His bucket list trip is to “cross The Alps where it is likely that Hannibal and his army crossed The Alps into the Piedmont region of Italy at the start of the Second Punic War.”
