Peter began his legal career as a diverse practice corporate law litigator, but his practice has focused exclusively on state and local tax issues for nearly 30 years.  He counsels clients on acquisition and reorganization transactions, and the resolution of tax controversies through negotiations and litigation, and he has extensive experience in the area of commercial property tax and real estate transfer tax.  Peter has represented various clients from several diverse industries, including hotel, telecommunications, oil and gas, solar, wind and geothermal power production, shopping centers, professional sports teams, sugar refineries, paper manufacturing, and commercial office and mixed-use properties.  Peter has prosecuted tax appeals before all levels of California’s courts, taxing authorities, and county assessment appeals boards. 

Peter has helped organize the California State Bar’s Eagle Lodge West property tax statute and regulation drafting projects, and he has been consulted as a property tax expert on several legislative bills. He has also been active in representing taxpayers in the California State Board of Equalization’s Assessor Handbook, taxpayer guidance and regulation drafting projects, including the Board’s Guidelines for Active Solar Energy Systems New Construction Exclusion. He has also represented clients in several states on state income tax, sales and use tax, and telecommunications tax matters involving voluntary disclosure agreements (“VDAs”), settlement negotiations, and litigation.

Peter has advised on and litigated property tax and/or real estate transfer tax matters for a variety of high-profile properties in San Francisco, Los Angeles County, Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County, Alameda County, and Santa Barbara County, including: the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, the Earthquakes’ MLS Stadium, the Transamerica Pyramid, Pier 39, the Ferry Building, One Market Street Towers, the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel, the former Candlestick Park Stadium, the Clift Hotel, Santana Row, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the Langham Huntington Hotel, Watson Cogeneration Power Plant, the Mondrian Hotel, the Four Season Biltmore Hotel, the San Ysidro Ranch, the Sandpiper Golf Course, and the Rancho San Marcos Golf Course. He has also represented several clients on property tax matters relating to geothermal, solar and wind power facilities.

Peter graduated, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989, where he was Articles Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal and received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1985. After law school, Peter served as a law clerk for the Hon. Richard J. Cardamone, on the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals from 1989-1990.  After completing his federal court clerkship in New York, Peter spent the first 27 years of his legal career in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster, where he was elected to the partnership in 2000.  He moved to the San Francisco office of Reed Smith LLP in 2017, where he served as Senior Counsel until April of 2021, when he left to co-found Vallejo, Antolin, Agarwal and Kanter.