Margaret L. Taylor served as the Legal Adviser for the United States Department of State through January 19, 2025. Prior to that role, she served as General Counsel for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Previously, she was a Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Editor at Lawfare. She served as the Democratic Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee through 2018. Prior to that, as a staff attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser, she advised on the legal aspects of foreign assistance programs, international economic sanctions, anti-trafficking in persons efforts, and other international law enforcement matters. She was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow with the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Ms. Taylor received her AB from Princeton University and JD from Columbia Law School, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review.