With over 40 years of legal experience, Peter primarily concentrates his practice on assisting financial institutions in the restructuring and, at times, liquidation of problem loans. Since the mid-1990s and exacerbated by the economic downturn of the past decade, Peter led a team of attorneys that resolved approximately 1,000 problem loans.
Peter began his career as the bankruptcy trustee for one of the oldest library furniture manufacturers in the United States, the company that made much of the furniture of the Library of Congress. He then became counsel to the US Small Business Administration (SBA), with initial responsibility for the agency’s banking relationships from Buffalo to Albany and in Canada. This led to Peter’s representation of 16 banks, ranging from large money-center institutions to local banks. With the passage of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, Peter and two other SBA attorneys were selected to teach the new bankruptcy law to all SBA attorneys as well as attorneys at other agencies.
Peter joined Menter, Rudin & Trivelpiece, now Barclay Damon, in 1980 and began representing many CNY businesses that needed financial restructuring or orderly liquidations. Among these clients were third-generation-owned businesses and manufacturers of products that were sold throughout the United States.