Gareth Peirce

Gareth Peirce
Born	Jean Margaret Webb March 1940 Cheltenham, England
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Occupation	Solicitor
Spouse(s)	Mellen Peirce
Children	Nicholas Peirce Zachary Peirce

Gareth Peirce (born March 1940) is an English solicitor and human rights activist. She is best known for her work and advocacy in high-profile cases involving allegations of human rights injustices. Her work with Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four – wrongly convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army – was chronicled in the film In the Name of the Father (1993), in which she was portrayed by Emma Thompson.

Peirce was born Jean Margaret Webb 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. She was educated at the Cheltenham Ladies' College, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.

In the 1960s, she worked as a journalist in the United States, following the campaign of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Married, she returned to Britain in 1970 with her husband and elder son and undertook her postgraduate law degree at the London School of Economics.

In 1974, she joined the law firm of solicitor Benedict Birnberg as a trainee, being admitted to the Roll of Solicitors on 15 December 1978. Following Birnberg's retirement in 1999, she continued to work as a senior partner of Birnberg Peirce and Partners.

In the mid-1970s, she supported specific campaigns for legal reforms of police procedures that permitted the prosecution and conviction of persons based solely on identification evidence. Individual cases then very much in the news led to the establishment of Justice Against the Identification Laws (JAIL), an organisation which Gareth Peirce supports.

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