Margaret Taylor

Margaret L. Taylor is a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Additionally, Taylor is a Senior Editor and Counsel at Lawfare, a national security website published in cooperation with Brookings. Previously, she was the Democratic Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 through July 2018. She advised the Ranking Member on the Committee and other Members on all legal, legislative, and procedural aspects of the Committee’s work. She managed, for the Democratic side of the committee, the development and movement of legislation; oversight activities; and the consideration of treaties and Ambassadorial nominations. She served as Deputy Chief Counsel from 2013-2015. Ms. Taylor was an attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2003 to 2013. Among other things, she advised on Iran sanctions; foreign assistance appropriations and implementation; as well as trafficking in persons, extradition, and other international law enforcement matters. In 2009-2010, Ms. Taylor was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow with the Center for Strategic & International Studies. She has served in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a JD from Columbia Law School, where she was a Kent Scholar and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review. After graduating from law school, Ms. Taylor clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2011-July 2016.

EDUCATION

• J.D., Columbia Law School
• B.A., Princeton University