Peter Tomczak

Peter P. Tomczak

Partner
Baker & McKenzie LLP

Biography

Peter Tomczak serves as the Chair of Baker McKenzie's North America Litigation and Government Enforcement Practice Group. Peter serves on the North America Pricing Committee, and oversees the practice group's development and review of non-hourly fee based arrangements, or AFAs. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2003, after having served as a law clerk for the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Practice Focus

Peter's principal areas of practice are corporate internal investigations, corporate compliance and complex business disputes. He has conducted internal investigations of compliance issues, including in particular under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, for multinational corporations in multiple international jurisdictions. He regularly counsels clients and their boards of directors on issues of corporate compliance and corporate governance, particularly with respect to anti-corruption matters. Peter also focuses his practice on complex business disputes, primarily those involving disputes among corporate constituents and fiduciary wrongdoing, and has significant experience with claims for emergency injunctive relief and other extraordinary equitable remedies.

Representative Legal Matters

Peter has advised clients in multiple industries, including among others the medical device, nuclear medicine, pharmaceutical, software, aviation, insurance, oil and gas and real estate industries.

  • Obtained an internal controls US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resolution and a civil money penalty of USD 375,000 with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a declination from the Department of Justice for a global health science company whose employee engaged a Russian agent and approved bribes to foreign officials.
  • Conducted internal investigations in, among other jurisdictions, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Mexico, and Russia for multinational business enterprises involving compliance issues, in particular those arising under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
  • Conducted anti-corruption due diligence on third-parties in, among other jurisdictions, Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Türkiye.
  • Conducted anti-corruption due diligence on target companies in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and joint venture partners in international joint ventures.
  • Tried to a favorable judgment in the Delaware Court of Chancery five public pension fund limited partners’ removal of the general partner of a USD 70 million real estate limited partnership.
  • Obtained order on appeal reversing an USD 11 million jury verdict and entering judgment in favor of founders of an electronic stock exchange on a fraud claim brought by a former business associate.
  • Represented a Japanese global life insurer in the Delaware Court of Chancery against challenges to its acquisition of a US insurer.
  • Represented a Japanese global life insurer in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon against challenges to its acquisition of a US insurer.
  • Represented an acquirer in successfully opposing a shareholder’s motion to enjoin a multibillion dollar merger with the target (trial and appeal in the same day).
  • Conducted an internal investigation for the US subsidiary of a German company involving allegations of trade secret misappropriation and corporate espionage.

 

Judicial Clerkship

Peter clerked for the Honorable Vice Chancellor John W. Noble of the Delaware Court of Chancery from 2002 to 2003

 

Education Honors

Peter received his Juris Doctorate degree, Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Michigan Law School in 2002. He was awarded the following:

  • Daniel H. Grady Prize for achieving the highest scholastic average of his graduating class.
  • Class of 1908 Scholarship Award for achieving the highest scholastic average of his second-year law school class.
  • Maurice Weigle Scholarship Award for achieving the highest scholastic average of his first-year law school class.
  • Emmett E. Eagan Award for excellence in the study of corporate law.

He also served as Articles Editor, Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review.

Peter received his Bachelor of Science in Economics, with Highest Honors, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999. He was named to the Bronze Tablet, which is the University's highest honor for graduating students, and was a member of the Campus Honors Program.

Professional Honors

  • NACD Directorship100: Governance Professionals and Institutions, 2018-2019
  • Illinois Rising Stars, Super Lawyers Individual Awards, 2010-2011, 2013-2017

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Wong Sun Society of San Francisco - Member
  • American Bar Association - Criminal Law Section - Member
  • American Bar Association - Business Law Section - Member

Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit (2014)
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit (2014)
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (2007)
  • Illinois~United States (2002)

Education

  • University of Michigan Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif) (2002)
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.S. Economics, Highest Honors) (1999)

Languages

  • English

Publications

Co-author, "ESG in the Boardroom: A Guidebook for Directors," ABA Book Publishing, 2022

Interview, "Baker McKenzie: ESG as New Risk Frontier", Ethisphere Magazine, The Super
ESG Issue, Winter 2019

Co-author, "Practical Guidance for Directors Overseeing Corporate Investigations," NACD Board Leaders’ Blog, 1 August 2018 

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Handbook (5th ed. 2018) (with Robert W. Tarun) 

Presentations

Canadian Institute’s Conducting Internal Investigations, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 6 June 2018

Panelist, Leading Minds of Governance, National Association of Corporate Directors, Miami, Florida, 6 December 2017