With a personal background refreshingly free of pretense and elitist privilege, Andrew (Drew) Taylor has worked his way to become one of Pennsylvania's leading independent divorce lawyers. He's a partner today at the Montgomery County firm of Shemtob Draganosky Taylor

Stein, where he's become one of the firm's go-to courtroom attorneys. He has already argued a case before Pennsylvania's Supreme Court, and he's widely known statewide now as an effective and influential appellate lawyer. All this, while still in his mid-40s and entering the

prime of his career. Clients and peers alike will notice that Taylor (“Everyone knows me as Drew”) benefits from a certain Commonwealth authenticity: He grew up and attended college in remote north-central Pennsylvania, specifically the small towns of Elimsport and Mansfield, both “suburbs” of

Williamsport, Pa., of Little League fame. “Not exactly places people rush to – most people would find them pretty boring.” In fact, Taylor is a product of an old-fashioned and valuable privilege: A tight-knit family and a community imbued with a natural sense of industry. His parents and grandparents ran the family's third-generation Christmas tree farm in Elimsport. At 16 he was bagging groceries at the Lewisburg Acme, and he worked waiting tables through all four years at Mansfield University (“Affordable tuition made it possible for me. I worked and I studied”), a 45-minute drive up Route 15. He majored in criminal justice administration, with a notion that the law might be a fit.

But, Taylor says today, it was a business-owner couple who were Friday night regulars at Hoss's Steak & Sea House who helped convince him that law school was his path. “They saw that I worked hard and could think fast on my feet.” Thus, graduating at the top of his class, Taylor enrolled at Ohio Northern Law School, in tiny Ada, Ohio, between Toledo and Dayton, (“My budget

was a factor – but it was small, collegial, not cutthroat – and geographically diverse. I had classmates from Alaska and Guam.”). He immediately joined a 12-lawyer firm back in Williamsport and plunged into insurance-defense work – hardly the legal specialty most lawyers feel much psychic reward from – and Taylor was no exception. At some point he got handed straightforward divorce cases: “I loved them – I was helping real people deal with real problems.”

Further, Taylor exhibited early on an ambition that spurred him to “keep moving, keep getting exposed to the best legal experience possible.” Remarkably, in 2005 he was hired

by the renowned Pittsburgh lawyer Chris Gillotti, who'd co-authored, in 1980, the Pennsylvania Divorce Code. Gillotti was “without a doubt my most important early mentor. He taught me not simply the nuts and bolts of family law, but how to conduct myself as a true professional.” First Rule: Don't burn any bridges – “I've tried to live by that.”

By then engaged (“I proposed to her just outside PNC Park”) and eager to try “the big-firm experience” Taylor was hired by the Philly-based firm of Wolf Block – all of a year before the firm famously imploded in 2009.

He'd been hired, in fact, by the high-profile divorce lawyer Lynne Gold-Bikin – who showed great loyalty to her group, promising to maintain payroll while she sought out a new firm. (Gold-Bikin died, age 80, in 2018.) Her department landed at Weber Gallagher in Norristown, where Taylor practiced until 2014. By that point Blue Bell attorney Lori Shemtob – herself a prominent and well known family lawyer – had handled several cases opposite Taylor, and hired him. Five years later he was named an equity partner at the Shemtob firm, which today has eight lawyers. In 2017 and still in his late 30s, he argued a key child-support case before the state Supreme Court, further raising his profile in the legal community. Today Taylor, an excellent writer, allocates about a quarter of his time to preparing appellate briefs; much of the rest is dedicated to representing a range of family-law clients, and handling complex litigation. Since the pandemic, much of his work – brief writing, document preparation – remains remote. With two children, Taylor and his wife are active in youth sports. Taylor too a one-time Eagle Scout, and today he leads his sons' cub pack. He says he hit an “only modest” midlife crisis and purchased a Harley Soft Tail, which he pulls out “when I can.” Taylor and his family today live near Skippack in Montgomery County, and, remaining true to his roots, the family acquired remote land in upper Schuylkill County. “Reminds me of where I come from,” he says. “Only a little closer.”