Adam Taylor

By Brooke Brown

Long before he became the founding partner of Taylor, Hinkle & Taylor, Attorneys at Law, Inc., Adam Taylor knew he wanted a career centered on purpose, service and constant growth.

More than chasing a specific job title, his early professional decisions were driven by a desire to engage in meaningful work, contribute to a greater whole and build a stable life. Today, Taylor is widely recognized as one of Southern West Virginia’s most dedicated attorneys and community advocates. Driven by a natural sense of civic responsibility, Taylor has carved a unique space where law, leadership and creativity connect. As an inductee into West Virginia Executive’s Lawyers & Leaders Class of 2026, Taylor stands as a testament to the idea that an attorney’s true value is measured by the strength of the community they build around them.

Taylor grew up in the town of Pineville, WV. He learned early that community is something you actively build on. His mother, Judy Tackett, was a beloved elementary school teacher who spent 35 years in the classroom. His father, Sherman Taylor, was a mortgage officer who worked in both the Pineville and Welch communities.

“Both of my parents were active in my small town, and that built my sense of community involvement, duty and expectation,” he says. “Everyone pitched in because everyone had to. In a very real small-town sense, without this mentality, there would have been nothing.”

During his childhood, Taylor was active in organized sports, including baseball, basketball and tennis, eventually rising to lead the tennis team at Wyoming East High School. At the same time, his church community became an important creative outlet, particularly through annual performances and plays that helped spark his lifelong passion for the arts.

Taylor graduated from West Virginia University (WVU) in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in theater. His emphasis was on stage management, the behind-the-scenes administration of live productions. While his colleagues often view his transition from theater to law as a complete turnaround, Taylor sees them as related fields.

“My arts degree focused on the human condition: what motivates people, what their values are and how we got here,” he says. “I refined my public speaking. I not only learned but ran de facto companies of more than 25 people for every production, including budgeting, personnel and scheduling. Everything I learned and practiced was helpful when I opened my law practice.”

In 2008, Taylor returned to Morgantown to attend WVU College of Law. Despite his organizational leadership experience, law school initially proved difficult for him. Taylor felt like he did not belong there, a belief he felt was guided by self-doubt. Eventually, he found help from professors and mentors like Charles DiSalvo and Jennifer Powell. They introduced him to the law school’s public service ecosystem, which became what he calls his safe harbor.

“I was reminded of the shared humanity in an otherwise unpleasant situation, and I’ll always be grateful for that,” he says.

His first job after graduating law school sent him all over the state of West Virginia. His first supervising attorney had Taylor managing high-stakes cases ranging from felonies to complex divorces and car wrecks. To him, it was a daunting task. Along the way, he learned to ask for help, discovering a supportive network of colleagues he could rely on.

“The practice of law is intimidating, and it’s easy to feel like knives are out for you all the time,” he says. “That’s just not true. You find people you can rely on, and you work together.”

The early years of his career were defined by a rigorous tenure as a child guardian ad litem in family and circuit courts. Over 13 years, Taylor represented hundreds of children navigating difficult, high-stress family dynamics.

“I’m now seeing those kids I served more than 10 years ago as grown-ups in my community, and it’s a humbling experience,” Taylor says. “They remember everything. These routine interactions that we, as lawyers, have with them and all our clients are formative, watershed moments in their lives. Especially involving children, we have a duty to approach every case with the utmost care and consideration, no matter how exhausting it becomes. Anything less leaves unnecessary scarring. That’s unacceptable.”

Eventually, Taylor opened his own practice where he now works alongside his partner, Amber Hinkle, and his wife, Mandy, who he considers the best attorney he knows. Now, Taylor uses his law degree in a highly strategic way, focusing primarily on transactional estate and commercial work. He defines his ultimate goal as conflict avoidance.

“Lawyers should fix, not destroy,” Taylor says. “It’s my job to listen to my clients, spot ambiguities and potential conflicts and resolve them before they arise. With estate work, you can see potential problems brewing from a mile away, and you have the power to wipe that clean. Death is a tough business, and people compartmentalize grief in strange ways. Throw money into the equation, and you have a recipe for volatility.”

By doing this, Taylor provides a vital service that preserves relationships and local business assets. Serving as the board president for Legal Aid of West Virginia, Taylor uses his legal background to guide organizational strategy, expand access to justice and handle multiple cases a year for those West Virginians who need it most.

In 2016, he became a founding member and board president of the WV Collective, a nonprofit performing arts program in Southern West Virginia. The organization hosts children’s theater camps and casts young adults in high-quality local productions.

“The WV Collective and its people are one of the things I’m most proud of,” Taylor says. “It’s satisfying to see these kids come together and find themselves, along with a shared cultural identity, through the arts. Some of them have graduated from our program and went on to pursue the arts in higher education. These are kids I’ve seen grow, and eventually thrive, due in part to the work we do.”

Looking ahead, Taylor remains deeply rooted to helping West Virginia. He is focused on living a purposeful life, ensuring he can raise a son who looks at his path and sees him as a model he can look up to.

“I’ve thrown my lot in with this state, and I’m going to work, kicking and screaming, to try to make it a place my kid doesn’t have to leave when he hits 18,” he says.

Through his dedication to service and community, Taylor is ensuring the people who live in the state have every reason to be proud to call West Virginia home.