Peter is a partner in the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources Group based in Washington, D.C. Peter focuses his practice on regulatory, compliance and transactional matters relating to commodities, derivatives and securities products regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

For almost 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, credit default swaps; foreign exchange, crypto currencies, precious metals; and securities.

Peter is recognized as a notable practitioner 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 expertise 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 rulemakings 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, they 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 USAID, where he participated in drafting commodities and securities legislation and advised local regulators on derivatives, commodity and securities trading matters.

Peter is the founder and chair emeritus of the Washington, D.C. Bar Derivatives and Futures Standing Sub-Committee of Business Law Section; is a chair of the website committee of the ABA Derivatives and Futures Law Committee; and 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, Practicing Law Institute (PLI), 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.