Peter Gruenberger has been a Litigation partner in the firm’s New York office since 1969. His practice has concentrated on complex business litigation, in which he has long acted as lead trial and appellate counsel in major cases. These cases have covered a broad spectrum of successful prosecution and defense of many high profile matters in federal and state courts across the US. Mr. Gruenberger has extensive experience in litigating securities class and derivatives actions, antitrust class and Section 7 cases, contested matters, adversary proceedings and confirmation trials representing debtors and creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, federal income and estate tax disputes, trust and estates breach of fiduciary duty suits and real estate controversies. He has also led many well-publicized internal corporate investigations representing company boards of directors and audit committees.
Peter Gruenberger has been a Litigation partner in the firm’s New York office since 1969. His practice has concentrated on complex business litigation, in which he has long acted as lead trial and appellate counsel in major cases. These cases have covered a broad spectrum of successful prosecution and defense of many high profile matters in federal and state courts across the US. Mr. Gruenberger has extensive experience in litigating securities class and derivatives actions, antitrust class and Section 7 cases, contested matters, adversary proceedings and confirmation trials representing debtors and creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, federal income and estate tax disputes, trust and estates breach of fiduciary duty suits and real estate controversies. He has also led many well-publicized internal corporate investigations representing company boards of directors and audit committees.
Mr. Gruenberger has also had an extensive practice in national and international mediations and arbitrations, acting as arbitrator, mediator and lawyer for parties. He is also a volunteer mediator for the US District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Southern District of New York.
Major clients he has represented as lead trial counsel include: Chapter 11 bankruptcy debtors Enron Corp. and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. and creditors such as CS First Boston in the Washington Group Inc. Chapter 11 case; automobile manufacturers (BMW and General Motors); retailers (Macy’s, J.C. Penny); banking and financial institutions (GE Capital, Citibank and Bain Capital); motion picture and entertainment enterprises (Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star); hospitality and hotel industry (Ritz Carlton); sports players’ associations (NBA and NHL); electronics firms (Matsushita and Panasonic); publishing houses (Harper & Row); software and data processing entities (Ross Perot and EDS); real estate operating and holding companies; law firms defending against alleged ethics violations; and tobacco manufacturers (North American Tobacco).
Mr. Gruenberger has won appeals in a wide variety of matters in the US Supreme Court, the US Circuit Courts for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, the New York Court of Appeals, Delaware Chancery and Supreme Courts, New Jersey and Florida Supreme Courts, and cases in many federal district courts in bankruptcy case appeals nationwide.
Mr. Gruenberger is a founding member and former officer of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, where he served on Special Committees that drafted amendments to the discovery rules and Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He also served as a member of the Grievance, Disciplinary and Ethics Committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and New York’s Southern and Eastern District Court Task Forces on revisions of the Local Rules of Court.
He has chaired both the Ethics and National Litigation Training Committees of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and counsels the firm on a wide range of ethical, compliance and training matters. He has taught, lectured and written widely in the field of complex litigation, dispute resolution, ethics and lawyer training.