Peter Prieto received his Bachelor's Degree, summa cum laude, from St. Thomas University, and three years later was awarded a Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law. While in law school, he served as a member of the Moot Court Board and as an articles and comments editor for the Law Review.
For almost twenty-five years, Peter has focused his practice on complex commercial litigation, including class actions, and white collar criminal defense. He has represented clients—both individual and corporate—in a wide array of civil litigation, including business and employment disputes, healthcare, antitrust, products liability, RICO and class action litigation. Peter has also represented clients in criminal investigations and prosecutions involving public corruption, business, banking and healthcare fraud, aviation, environmental violations, antitrust and money laundering.
Some of Peter's most significant engagements in his civil litigation practice have involved 1) a RICO class action alleging that healthcare company who operated dozens of hospitals had unlawfully inflated its prices to obtain additional Medicare funds, and consequently had caused damages of over $1 billion dollars to thousands of hospitals within the class; 2) claims against international athletic and footwear company by a marketing company that alleged that the company had stolen the "idea" of using a famous singer as a spokesperson; 3) claims by over 100 patients who asserted that hospital's negligence caused them to contract post-operative surgical site infections; and 4) claims for breach of contract and fraud by a group of physicians against health care provider seeking over $100 million. Some of Peter's significant white collar criminal engagements have included 1) conducting internal investigation for, and subsequently representing, a public company in connection with possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"); 2) representing a cargo airline and its principals in a criminal investigation involving allegations that airline had falsified maintenance records; and 3) conducting internal investigation for Fortune 100 company in connection with allegations of price-fixing.
During his career, including his several years as a federal prosecutor, Peter has obtained substantial trial and appellate experience. He has tried over 25 criminal and civil cases and has argued over a dozen appeals before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. For his litigation skills, he has been recognized as one of the "Top Lawyers in South Florida," according to the South Florida Legal Guide, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Florida's Legal Elite, and Chambers USA, which has praised Peter for being "thorough in his advice" to clients, and for his "trial experience and plain speaking good judgment."
Peter was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1985, and is also a member of various other Bars, including the Supreme Court of the United States, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida Trial Bar, the Dade County Bar, the American Bar Association and the Cuban-American Bar Association.
Peter currently serves as a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Third District Court of Appeal, and previously served, pursuant to appointments by Governors Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush, as a Commissioner on Florida's Commission on Ethics. He serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Miami School of Law's Center for Ethics & Public Service and on the Alumni Advisory Board of the University of Miami Law Review. Peter is also a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Thomas University.
Prior to joining the firm, Peter was a federal prosecutor, first with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, and later with the Office of Independent Counsel in Washington, D.C. where he worked on the criminal investigation of the late Secretary of Commerce, Ronald H. Brown. For over a decade, he was also a partner and trial lawyer with the firm of Holland & Knight LLP.
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