Overview
Qualified to practice in England & Wales, Hong Kong and Australia, Peter leads Dorsey & Whitney’s mainland China offices from his base in Shanghai. Peter specializes in the area of Chinese corporate, commercial and regulatory practice with a great deal of focus on environmental law and climate change and is Co-Head of the Firm’s Clean Technology Practice Group. Peter is also recognized as a leading practitioner in the field of mediation and arbitration. With his wide breadth of experience, Peter was Managing Partner of Dorsey’s Shanghai office, and Co-Head of the Firm’s U.S.-China Practice Group.
Peter has secured positions on 13 arbitration commission panels, most just recently, which include the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Singapore International Arbitration, Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, Shanghai International Arbitration Centre, China-Africa Arbitration Center, Dalian International Arbitration Center, Xi’an Arbitration Commission, Zhuhai Arbitration Commission, Wuhan Arbitration Commission, Tianjin Arbitration Commission and Luoyang Arbitration Commission. He was presiding arbitrator over the first arbitrations held within the Arbitration Court established by SHIAC within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Peter also had a hand in the drafting and the translation of SHIAC’s Arbitration Rules, the most forward-looking arbitration rules in China’s history. Peter is on the panel of China’s first professional commercial mediation body, the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Centre (SCMC) where he heads their environmental, natural resources and mining committee. Peter helped to resolve the first mediated dispute between two foreign companies in the FTZ in 2015. He has also been instrumental in helping SCMC become affiliated with the US-based world renowned dispute resolution institute, JAMS ADR, and in the formulation of the rules underpinning the recently launched SCMC-EUIPO Co-Mediation Mechanism Platform.
Peter is Global Adjunct Professor at NYU Shanghai, where he taught International Mediation and Arbitration in 2018 and 2019 and will teach Experiential Mediation in 2022.
Education & Admissions
Waseda University, Tokyo (Post-graduate research, 1987)
Renmin University, Beijing (Post-graduate research, 1991)
University of Melbourne (LL.M., 1995)
University of Sydney (LL.B., 1988)
University of Sydney (B.A., 1988)
Admissions
- England & Wales
- Hong Kong
Languages
- Non-native but fluent speaker of both Mandarin Chinese and Japanese
Experience
Representative Work
Some signature deals in which Peter has led as legal advisor include:
- Putting in place one of the largest clean development mechanism (CDM) projects up to that time under the Kyoto Protocol for a consortium of Japanese investors
- Acting for a large Chinese steel manufacturer in one of the largest ever energy efficiency CDM projects
- Securing the approval from the Chinese FDA of the establishment of a manufacturing facility by a leading pharmaceutical company from the US to produce intrusive diagnostic equipment
- Setting up the first foreign-invested company limited by shares under the PRC Company Law for India’s leading company, then leading its restructuring in several rounds of share reorganizations
- Reorganizing a nationwide beverage business into a company limited by shares with multiple shareholders and branches
- Executing a number of delicate mergers for leading western multinationals including an unprecedented cross-jurisdictional merger between a company limited by shares in Beijing with a limited liability company in Shanghai
- Engineering a split and assets transfer of a major chemical facility in Shanghai from a MNC petrochemical company, in the process addressing government concerns in respect of wastewater treatment to secure multiple relevant approvals
- Helping an environmental company to execute the largest M&A project up to that time in the western regions of China
- Setting up a series of R&D collaboration projects with leading Chinese research institutes to develop and deploy strategic carbon capture and neutralization solutions in the bio-fertilizer and biofuel-derivative industry to address China’s climate change challenges
- Acting for a world-renowned amusement park operator in drafting and negotiating one of the first true energy management contracts in the sphere of green buildings in China for its green building lab in Shanghai
- Acting for an Icelandic company in the setting up of a geothermal residential estate heating joint venture with Sinopec, and assisting in its restructuring and partial sale to another investor
- Advising a foreign company to set up a hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing base in North China
Other Experience
Peter has developed a robust climate change practice in China and is well known within Shanghai’s cleantech community. Co-head of Dorsey & Whitney’s global Cleantech Business Group, Peter is currently National Vice-Chair of the Environmental Working Group of the European Chamber of Commerce in China. He teaches Climate Change Law as an Adjunct Professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai.
Peter is a pioneer in the area of anti-trust in China and participated, in his role as long-term head of the Legal Working Group of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, in the drafting of and commentary upon China’s Anti-Trust Law and associated legislation.
He is, in addition, a noted authority on PRC administrative law and the foreign investment process, having authored a critically acclaimed book on the subject and numerous academic publications.
News & Resources
Articles
News & Press Mentions
Events & Speaking Engagements
Industries & Practices
Educational Publishing, Technology & Services
Explore This Practice View client achievements related to this practice View resources related to this practiceCybersecurity, Privacy & Social Media
Explore This Practice View client achievements related to this practice View resources related to this practiceFood, Beverage & Agribusiness
Explore This Practice View client achievements related to this practice View resources related to this practiceEnergy & Natural Resources
Explore This Practice View client achievements related to this practice View resources related to this practice- Anti-Corruption Group
- Asia-Pacific
- China
- Cybersecurity, Privacy & Social Media
- Educational Publishing, Technology & Services
- Energy & Natural Resources
- Europe
- Food, Beverage & Agribusiness
- Healthcare
- Israel
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Sustainability
- Technology Commerce
Professional & Civic
Professional Achievements
- Arbitration Panelist, Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Shanghai International Arbitration Centre, Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, Nanjing Arbitration Commission, Tianjin Arbitration Commission, Dalian International Arbitration Court and Luoyang Arbitration Commission
- Global International Adjunct Professor of Law, NYU, from January 2018 (teaching the courses “International Mediation and Arbitration” and “Experiential Mediation” in NYU Shanghai)
- Visiting Adjunct Professor of Practice, University of Nottingham, Ningbo, April 2021.
Adjunct Professor of Law, East China University of Political Science and Law (teaching Climate Change Law), July 2021. - Adjunct Professor of Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, from 2021.
- Visiting Occasional Adjunct Lecturer, Jiaotong University Faculty of Law Graduate School, from 2021.
- Head of Environmental, Natural Resources and Mining Committee, Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center
- Member of Expert Committee of Minerals and Energy, Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration
- Senior Mediator,Shanghai Commercial Mediation Centre (Shanghai “JAMS”)
- Mediator, Benchmark Chambers International & Benchmark International Mediation Center
- Adjunct Professor, Fudan University Advanced Lawyers’ Institute
- National Vice- Chair, Environmental Working Group, EU-China Chamber of Commerce
- Trainer, Shanghai Bar Association (“SBA”) (teaching International Mediation and Arbitration). Dorsey & Whitney is a “Member by Special Invitation” of the SBA.
