Lara M. Peirce, Policy Advisor

Lara M. Peirce serves as a Policy Advisor in the SMART Office for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

Prior to joining the SMART Office, Ms. Peirce served as an Assistant District Attorney in Dallas County, Texas for over 7 years. During her tenure she was lead attorney on 96 jury trials, second-chaired an additional 86 cases, closed over 1500 felony cases and trained countless numbers of prosecutors and police officers. She spent 2 years as a Felony Chief Prosecutor, supervising the prosecution of felony cases, including general felony cases with an emphasis on violent crime, including capital murder, aggravated robbery, and sexual assault of teenagers and adults. While a Felony Chief, Ms. Peirce developed an expertise in prosecuting failure to comply with sex offender registration cases.

Before her promotion to Felony Chief, Ms. Peirce spent 18 months in Child Abuse Unit prosecuting child abuse cases. Here she received extensive training and experience in the effective prosecution of child molestation cases. She tried 20 felony child abuse cases, second-chaired an additional 12 cases and closed approximately 100 cases.

Prior to joining the Dallas County District Attorney’s office, Ms. Peirce spent 2 years at the law firm of Thompson & Knight L.L.P. in Dallas, Texas. Upon graduating law school, Ms. Peirce completed a 1 year federal judicial law clerkship for the Honorable Sidney A. Fitzwater, the current Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Ms. Peirce graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She received her law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law, where she served as the Notes Development Editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. Ms. Peirce is member of the Texas State Bar and Georgia State Bar.