For over 20 years, Peter has assisted clients in the United States and overseas on numerous transactions involving over-the-counter and exchange-traded derivatives products in almost every asset class and market, such as: banking, financial institutions and insurance; agriculture, energy, mining, and emissions; transportation and infrastructure; interest rates and credit default swaps; foreign exchange, crypto currencies, and precious metals; and securities.
Peter is recognized by Chambers USA for his “expertise on regulatory, compliance and transactional matters related to commodities, securities and derivatives products.” In Chambers Global, Peter is noted as a much-respected name in the derivatives regulatory space, with particular knowledge in CFTC-related matters. Market commentators state: "He has great market knowledge and brings that to bear in his advice to us."
Since 2008, Peter has been actively involved in assisting market participants in drafting and commenting on the proposed derivatives legislation in U.S. Congress - this legislation subsequently became the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. After the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, Peter has continued assisting clients with advocacy and compliance relating to the CFTC and the SEC rule-makings under the Dodd-Frank Act. As part of this effort, Peter also is actively engaged with the National Futures Association (NFA), the Financial Industry National Regulatory Association (FINRA), and other self-regulatory organizations’ (SROs) implementation efforts under the Dodd-Frank Act and the CFTC and SEC regulations thereunder.
Peter assists various U.S. and non-U.S. derivatives markets participants with formulating their risk management and regulatory compliance efforts under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, and CFTC’s and SEC’s regulations as well as cross-border application of U.S. regulations. These market participants include entities that require assistance with structuring risk management and hedging transactions, registering with the CFTC or the NFA in the appropriate category, or seeking an exemption from such registration. For example, these entities include commodity pool operators (CTOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs); futures commission merchants (FCMs),; introducing brokers (IBs); swap dealers (SDs); major swap participants (MSPs),; foreign boards of trade (FBOTs),; swap execution facilities (SEFs); non-U.S. intermediaries; commercial end users; and various derivatives or commodities traders. Assisting with compliance under SROs’ rules, such as U.S. and non-U.S. exchanges and trading facilities, is also a large part of Peter’s practice.
Peter has worked at international law firms in Washington, D.C., as well as in Moscow, London, and San Francisco. He has worked as a lawyer at the CFTC’s Division of Economic Analysis and the Office of International Affairs, where he focused on exempt energy derivatives markets and interpretations of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. His experience also includes work at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, as well as work on behalf of Harvard University at the Federal Commission on Securities Markets in Moscow and, more recently, in Rabat, Morocco for the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he participated in drafting commodities and securities legislation and advised local regulators on derivatives and commodity and securities trading matters.
Peter is the founder and chairman of the Washington, D.C., American Bar Association (ABA) Derivatives and Futures Law Subcommittee of the Business Law Section, and in 2019 he was elected to be a steering committee member and a vice chair of the D.C. Bar Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Committee; he is a chair of the website committee of the ABA Derivatives and Futures Law Committee; and he is also a member of the Board of Editors of the Futures and Derivatives Law Report. He is on the roll of solicitors for the Law Society of England and Wales and is admitted to practice law in Washington, D.C., and California.
Peter is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, such as the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the ABA, the Practising Law Institute, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), and others. He has written numerous articles on derivatives and commodities topics and, most recently, is the author of the chapter on swap execution facilities in OTC Regulation Under Dodd-Frank: A Guide to Registration, Reporting, Business Conduct, and Clearing, Meehan and Rosenberg (Thomson Reuters, Westlaw). He is also is an adjunct professor at George Washington Law School and Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he teaches classes on commodities and derivatives regulation.
Peter also serves as the Washington D.C. office’s diversity, equity and inclusion firm’s liaison.