Gareth Peirce

Peirce was born in March 1940 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Margaret (née Twidell) and John Le Plastrier Webb. She changed her name from Jean to Gareth during her formative years but never divulged to anyone the reason for doing so. She was subsequently educated at the Cheltenham Ladies' College, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. ==Career==

In the 1960s she worked as a journalist in the United States, following the campaign of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. She married, returned to Britain in 1970 with her husband and son and undertook her postgraduate law degree at the London School of Economics. Her younger son was born in London after her permanent return to England. as a trainee, she continued to work as a senior partner of Birnberg Peirce and Partners. During her career she represented Judith Ward, who had been wrongfully convicted in 1974 of several IRA-related bombings, the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, several mineworkers after the Battle of Orgreave, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes and Moazzam Begg, a man held in extrajudicial detention by the American government. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, appointed Peirce as his solicitor in Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority. She was among the doctors and lawyers who were spied on by UC Global while visiting Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy. Santiago Pedraz, the Audiencia Nacional judge who is overseeing the case against UC Global's David Morales, issued court orders requesting permission of UK authorities to take witness testimony from Peirce and others. ==Recognition and reception==

Peirce's role in the defence of the Guildford Four was dramatised in the 1993 film In the Name of the Father, with Peirce portrayed by Emma Thompson. but later wrote to Downing Street asking for it to be withdrawn and tendering an apology for any misunderstanding. In 1999 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by NUI Galway. In 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland. ==Personal life==

Peirce has been described as a very private person who shuns the limelight and refuses media interviews. She lives in Kentish Town, north London, with her husband, Mellen Chamberlain "Bill" Peirce, a writer and photographer, son of American painter Waldo Peirce. They have two sons. ==Bibliography==