Advancing the Rule of Law in More Than 45 Countries

Mary Noel Pepys is a senior attorney specializing in the rule of law, with a focus on international legal and judicial reform. Since 1993, she has helped emerging democracies strengthen justice systems that protect human rights, promote equal treatment under the law, and establish predictable legal frameworks supported by fair, transparent, and effective institutions.

Drawing on her experience with both common law and civil law traditions, Ms. Pepys has provided legal and technical assistance to national governments, judiciaries, legal professionals, and academic institutions. She has worked in more than 45 countries across the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, as well as throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, supporting efforts to strengthen accountable governance and the rule of law. Over a seven-year period, she lived and worked in Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Croatia. She also lived in Italy for two years while serving as an attorney for the Multinational Force and Observers, the international peacekeeping force that monitors the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty.

Building on her extensive international experience, Ms. Pepys has authored a substantial body of governmental reports, published essays on her experiences abroad, convened international conferences, and delivered speeches on a wide range of rule of law issues. More recently, her work has focused on threats to the rule of law and judicial independence in the United States.

Before focusing on international affairs, Ms. Pepys built an extensive career in public service at the local, state, and federal levels. She held positions with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the California Attorney General’s Office, the California Supreme Court and California Courts of Appeal, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In the private sector, Ms. Pepys practiced in San Francisco as a real estate attorney with Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe and later maintained a solo practice focused on land use law. Prior to becoming an attorney, she served as chief of staff to two Presidents of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Dianne Feinstein and Jack Ertola. Following a nine-month solo journey through Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, including volunteering on an Israeli kibbutz where she gained firsthand experience with agricultural labor, she produced Action Line, a consumer-oriented segment for KPIX-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco.