Profile
Peter is a member of the Restructuring & Bankruptcy and Corporate Trust Services practice groups in Greenberg Traurig’s Minneapolis office. He has worked on the full spectrum of corporate and finance transactions, from front-end deal work, to litigation, to back-end defaults and restructurings. Peter is practical, business-minded, and focuses on maximizing outcomes and recoveries for his clients.
Peter has experience in a wide range of corporate trust products, including municipal and corporate debt, qualified settlement funds, liquidating trusts, and related defaults, restructurings, and litigation. He has also worked extensively with clients on fraud remediation and asset recovery, including offensive litigation on behalf of chapter 7 trustees and other aggrieved parties. In addition, Peter regularly represents debtors, committees, creditors, and other parties in bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court restructurings.
Peter maintains an active pro bono practice, with an emphasis on issues involving children, education, and military members. Before becoming a lawyer, Peter was a Teach for America corps member, teaching elementary special education at a charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Concentrations
- Fraud remediation and asset recovery
- Liquidating trusts
- Qualified settlement funds
Capabilities
Experience
- Representation of indenture trustee in monetization of senior housing apartments and related offensive litigation against probate estate of obligor.
- Representation of trustee in formation and administration of various qualified settlement funds established by bankruptcy debtors to resolve mass tort liabilities.
- Representation of trustee in formation and administration of various liquidating trusts established to monetize settlement payments, limited partnership assets, corporate tax refunds, and other assets.
- Representation of indenture trustee in municipal bond default relating to private educational institution, including creating liquidating trust to monetize real estate collateral for the benefit of bondholders.
- Representation of indenture trustee in municipal bond default relating to senior housing facility, including working with company and bondholders to implement out-of-court, consensual monetization plan that resulted in payment in full of all bond obligations.
- Representation of indenture trustee in municipal bond default relating to senior housing facility, including working with company and bondholders to devise consensual plan for remedying defaults.
- Representation of indenture trustee in municipal bond default relating to a power plant facility, including litigation related to lien priorities against power plan assets.
- Representation of trustee in cross-border restructuring of senior secured corporate notes involving Australian scheme proceeding and U.S. chapter 15 filing.
- Defense of trustee against aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty claim in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
- Defense of trustee against breach of contract and tort claims in South Carolina federal court, resulting in complete bench trial verdict (currently on appeal).
- Representation of national bank in standardizing bailment and custodial agreements relating to mortgage securitization transactions.
- Representation of trustee of unit investment trust in restructuring and sale of distressed winery assets.°
- Representation of trustee of unit investment trust as a third-party intervenor in foreclosure litigation, including obtaining right to pursue surplus sale proceeds.°
- Representation of trustee in investigation, out-of-court restructuring, and monetization of illiquid trust assets stemming from $300 million fraud.°
- Representation of chapter 7 trustee in pursuit of claims against former officers and directors, secured lender, and merger partner relating to the fraudulent seizure of the debtor’s assets, resulting in settlements exceeding $6 million.
- Representation of trustee in offensive litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery relating to a complex fraud and obtained $55 million preliminary injunction.°
- Representation of chapter 7 trustee in investigation of officer, director, and insider fraud claims.
- Representation of creditors’ committee in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Gulf Coast Health Care, LLC.
- Representation of shipping broker in asserting administrative claim against chapter 11 debtor.
- Representation of secured lenders in Article 9 foreclosure sale of distillery assets.
- Representation of YouFit Health Clubs, a chain of fitness gyms, in its chapter 11 bankruptcy case, including 363 sale of all assets to secured lender.
- Representation of equity owner in state law wind-down and dissolution of subsidiary.
- Representation of secured lender to commercial farming operation, resulting in restructuring of loan and taking additional security (including wetland credits) through state-law mediation.
- Representation of landlords in retail, fitness, and car rental bankruptcies, including negotiating lease assumptions and cure payments.
- Representation of Shale Support Holdings, a frac sand supplier, in its chapter 11 bankruptcy case, including confirmation of a debt-for-equity plan of reorganization.
- Representation of equipment lessors with claims exceeding $8 million in chapter 11 bankruptcy, resulting in order authorizing administrative expenses for debtors’ continued equipment use.°
- Representation of active-duty military member in residential real estate dispute.
- Representation of Cameroonian family in asylum proceedings.
- Representation of active-duty military member in child custody dispute, resulting in court order granting all requested relief.
- Defense of youth soccer non-profit in litigation regarding unpaid field time, resulting in stipulated dismissal with prejudice.
°The above representations were handled by Mr. Kieselbach prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Minnesota Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2023-2024
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, "Ones to Watch," Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2022-2025
- Listed, Minnesota Lawyer, "Up & Coming Attorneys,” 2022
- Outstanding Services Award, ABA Military Pro Bono Project, 2022
- Member, Winning Team, IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards, “Deal of the Year: Restructuring” for Boart Longyear, 2022
- Recognized, Minnesota State Bar Association, “North Star Lawyers,” 2021-2022
- Member, Winning Team, Global M&A Network’s Turnaround Atlas Awards, “Energy Services Restructuring of the Year (Mid-Markets)” for Shale Support Global Holdings, 2021
- Member, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees
Credentials
Education
-
J.D., Mitchell Hamline School of Law, 2015
- Valedictorian
- Editor-in-Chief, William Mitchell Law Review
- B.A., Grinnell College, 2010
Clerkships
- Hon. John R. Tunheim, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, 2015-2016
Admissions
- Minnesota
- U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota