One-on-one with the court system’s first-ever civic engagement coordinator

Zenith Taylor is the state court system’s first-ever statewide civic engagement coordinator. Photo via UCS

By Jacob Kaye

Around a year ago, Queens attorney Zenith Taylor took on two new roles.

She was elected the president of the Queens County Bar Association and she was named the first-ever statewide civic engagement coordinator by the chief judge of the Court of Appeals.

A year later, she’s ending her term as QCBA president – but only getting started in her role with the court system.

Over the past year, Taylor, who worked as a court attorney referee in Queens’ Surrogate’s Court before her appointment, has been allowed to craft the role created to help bolster Chief Judge Rowan Wilson’s vision for the courts. Wilson, who has led the courts since 2023, has said he wants New York’s justice system to be more transparent, fair and more focused on reform than punishment.

As the statewide civic engagement coordinator, Taylor has been tasked with creating programming and initiatives that promote civic literacy, engagement and community involvement for the court system.

“My role is to connect the courts to the community,” Taylor recently told the Eagle.

During the first 12 months of the job, Taylor has traveled around the state, going to schools, civic associations and “whoever will listen to [her]” to tell them the “importance of civics, the importance of civic engagement.”

And while Taylor has attempted to teach others about the way civics work generally speaking, she’s also attempted to lift the veil on the court system, the branch of government most people appear to know the least about.

“That's Judge Wilson's vision,” she said. “He wants active participation, and to let people know that we are a co-equal branch of the New York State Government, because many people don't even realize that we're part of the government.”

At the time of Taylor’s appointment in May 2024, Wilson said in a statement that among his top priorities was “expanding the New York State courts’ community outreach and civic education initiatives.”

“That is why I am so pleased that Zenith Taylor has been named to fill this critically important new role within the court system,” Wilson said at the time. “She is a talented attorney who, believing deeply in this mission, has worked with bar associations and other groups to create and deliver programs to educate the public about the workings of the courts and legal system and help spur civic engagement. I am eager to work with her, along with the court system’s leadership team, judges, non-judicial personnel, and justice partners, towards our goal of engaging and informing New Yorkers, particularly young people, in the work of the New York State Courts and our State government.”

Taylor said that she’s already begun to see the fruits of her labor play out in her interactions with young people.

Shortly after beginning the job, Taylor launched a statewide essay contest for high school students in honor of Constitution Day, which is held in September.

The contest was a hit. The courts received over 200 submissions, including nearly three dozen from a single school in Edmeston, a town outside of Cooperstown.

“That made me say, ‘Okay, I think I’m onto something,” Taylor said.

In the coming years, Taylor said she hopes to visit every judicial district in the state and create programs for every age group, from elementary school students to senior citizens.

For adults, Taylor said she recently held a tour of the Queens courthouse, where she showed a group of seniors the clerk’s office and explained what happens there. They spoke about how the office could be utilized when one is considering selling their house.

“We did things that would resonate,” she said.

Being from Queens and experiencing the diversity of the borough, Taylor said her experience growing up in the World’s Borough has largely been a major asset in her interactions with those across the state and even at home.

“You have to know how to tailor your programs to meet the needs of each community,” she said.

Taylor expects her office to grow in the coming years – she recently brought on two staff members.

She also hopes that New Yorkers continue to pick up on her message, which she believes will make the justice system more just.

“Once they know the processes of their government, then equal access to justice trickles down,” she said. “They’ll know that based on our constitution, they have equal access to justice, and their voice does matter.”