Peter M. Skinner

Leveraging his experience in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.), Peter is a hybrid civil and criminal litigator who represents companies, financial institutions, boards, and individuals through all phases of investigation and litigation.

Peter is regularly recognized by leading industry publications such as Chambers USA, where he is described as “remarkable in his ability to cut through complex matters and deliver clear arguments that yield desired results,” “an exceptional attorney,” “a really skilled advocate,” and “a great legal mind and strategist.”

From 2004 until 2015, Peter was a federal prosecutor in the S.D.N.Y., where he oversaw international investigations and prosecutions of terrorist financing, money laundering, export controls, and Bank Secrecy Act violations, and frequently investigated global and domestic criminal organizations for racketeering, extortion, and labor corruption crimes. In addition to his work as a criminal prosecutor, Peter also served in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he defended federal agencies in all manner of civil litigation and regularly advised the intelligence community on sensitive matters affecting national security.

• Representation of Nike in connection with the prosecution of Michael Avenatti for extorting Nike
• Defense of The New York Times in a libel case
• Defense of the CEO of Uber in a federal antitrust class action alleging price fixing and defense of Uber in follow-on arbitration concerning the same price-fixing allegations
• Representation of Nike in connection with DOJ investigation of alleged corruption in elite high school basketball programs
• Defense of a privately held healthcare technology company in DOJ and SEC investigations of statements the company made while raising capital

• Representation of plaintiffs in a national class action against agencies that colluded to pay low wages to au pairs

• Representation of a Fortune 100 company in a global corruption investigation
• Defense of a sharing-economy tech startup in litigation seeking to hold the company responsible for the conduct of a contractor
• Representing the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, and BTA Bank in racketeering litigation stemming from the theft of billions of dollars by the former mayor of the city and chairman of the bank
• Representation at trial of a woman who sought to use frozen embryos she and her ex-husband had created during their marriage

Significant cases Peter oversaw while at the U.S. Attorney’s Office included: 

• Multiyear international money laundering investigation of businesses and banks that resulted in the convictions of more than 50 people for trade-based money laundering violations
• Trial of a perfume wholesaler for conducting trade-based money laundering for a Mexican cartel; the judge overseeing the trial said Peter made one of “the two best sentencing submissions that I’ve heard in 18 years on this bench”
• Prosecution of more than 40 doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople for a $250 million healthcare fraud — the largest such fraud ever charged
• Trial of the president, vice president, and former president of a New York-based union for RICO and money laundering violations; in 2012, Peter was named Prosecutor of the Year for the case by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation

Connected and Collateral Consequences of Corporate Crime: Can a Corporation Survive a Criminal Conviction?, International Comparative Legal Guide to Business Crime (October 2020)

FinCEN Employing New Tactics to Combat Money Laundering, New York Law Journal, May 1, 2015 (with Matthew Schwartz)

How Criminal Prosecutors Investigate Violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, Inside Counsel, March 10, 2015 (with Matthew Schwartz)