The legal profession’s eternal outsider and scourge of the Establishment, Gareth Peirce has one of its most formidable reputations. Over 30 years the radical defence solicitor whose name is synonomous with civil rights has taken most of the highly publicised cases — but always eschewing personal publicity. Clients include the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, David Shayler, the former M15 officer, Abu Qatada (described as Europe’s al-Qaeda ambassador), Judith Ward, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, Mozzam Begg and others. Peirce went to Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Oxford University and the London School of Economics: in the Sixties she worked as a journalist in the United States, trailing Martin Luther King, then returning to Britain in the Seventies having married Bill Peirce, son of the American painter Waldo Peirce. Her career began as a trainee at the radical firm, Birnbergs; she is now senior partner of Birnberg Peirce & Partners. Hardworking, tenacious and determined, she leaves no stone unturned in the interests of her clients — with impressive results. Active as ever, she acts for terrorist suspects who were held in Guantanamo Bay as well as those detained in the UK and she continues to berate politicians over measures to combat terrorism. Intensely private, Peirce was unimpressed with her portrayal by the actress Emma Thompson in the film, In the Name of the Father (about the Guildford Four). Peirce, who discarded her birth name of Jean when young for Gareth, was apppointed CBE in 1999 but asked for it to be withdrawn. She and her husband live in Kentish Town, North London.

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