Peter Thomas is Managing Partner of Simpson Thacher’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the Firm's Litigation Department. Mr. Thomas has extensive experience in large, complex commercial litigations and arbitrations, particularly in the areas of antitrust and international arbitration. He also advises clients in transactions subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The Firm’s Washington, D.C. office concentrates primarily on antitrust litigation and merger enforcement, international investment treaty and commercial arbitrations, and governmental and internal investigations, including securities enforcement matters.  

Mr. Thomas’s recent experience includes representing:  The Blackstone Group, L.P. in a putative class action antitrust litigation brought against private equity firms alleging collusive bidding practices; the Dominican Republic in two international investment treaty arbitrations and a companion ICC case stemming from privatization of the country’s electricity sector; the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) in obtaining CFIUS clearance of its proposed $19.2 billion investment in Rio Tinto; LBA Y.K., in a proceeding under 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 to obtain evidence for use in a Tokyo District Court action against Marubeni Corporation; Oil Basins Limited in an ad hoc oil and gas royalty arbitration in Melbourne, Australia; DoubleClick in obtaining FTC clearance of its acquisition by Google following a Second Request investigation; MasterCard International through trial and related proceedings on its successful motion to enforce the final judgment against Visa U.S.A. in a Department of Justice antitrust enforcement action; Warner Chilcott, in antitrust enforcement and individual and class action litigation arising from the company’s agreements with Barr Laboratories for the supply of the birth control pill, Ovcon; Rinker Group Limited in a DOJ Second Request antitrust investigation arising from a hostile takeover offer by a competing firm, Cemex, in the ready-mix concrete, cement and aggregates businesses; New Brunswick Power in international litigation proceedings against the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company and a subsidiary; Accenture in various commercial disputes, litigations and arbitrations, as well as through trial and a successful final award against the Andersen Worldwide network of member firms in the largest multi-party arbitration ever conducted under the ICC Rules; British Energy through trial and a successful final award in an arbitration arising from a long-term power purchase agreement; JP Morgan Chase in certain NASD matters and in a major federal and state court litigation arising from Sumitomo Corporation’s copper trading activities, including alleged manipulation of world copper markets; and Ford Motor Company through a successful trial in a London insurance arbitration.

Mr. Thomas joined Simpson Thacher in September 1984 and was elected to partnership in October 1992. He received his B.A. with High Honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980 and received his J.D. in 1984 from the U.C.L.A. School of Law where he was Order of the Coif.

Honors/Associations

•	Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics, 1994-1997
•	Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Professional Discipline, 1991-1994
•	American Bar Association
•	International Bar Association

Publications

•	The Supreme Court Considers the Standards Governing the Interpretation of ERISA Plans
•	SEC Announces Significant New Initiatives to Encourage Cooperation in Investigations and Enforcement Actions
•	The Supreme Court Considers Whether the NFL is a "Single Entity" and thus Immune from Antitrust Scrutiny
•	The Supreme Court Considers Whether Class Arbitration is Permitted When the Arbitration Clause is Silent on the Issue
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
•	The Supreme Court Considers the ‘Inquiry Notice’ Standard in Federal Securities Fraud Cases
•	The Heightened Pleading Standard of Twombly Applies to All Federal Civil Claims
•	The Supreme Court Allows Non-Signatories to Arbitration Agreements to Seek to Stay Claims under the Federal Arbitration Act
•	China Blocks Foreign Acquisition of a Chinese Company in an Early Major Test of the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law
•	The Supreme Court Adopts Broader View of Federal Jurisdiction to Hear Motions to Compel Arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act
•	The Supreme Court Hears Argument Concerning the Ability of Non-Signatories to Arbitration Agreements to Stay Claims under the Federal Arbitration Act
•	The Supreme Court Rejects the “Price Squeeze” Theory of Illegal Monopolization
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Applicability of the “Price-Squeeze” Theory of Illegal Monopolization
•	Treasury Issues Final Regulations for Foreign Investments Subject to Review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Extent of Federal Subject Matter Jurisdiction Under the FAA
•	Peter C. Thomas, Arman Y. Oruc, and Michael C. Naughton, Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions, in ANTITRUST COUNSELING AND LITIGATION TECHNIQUES (Julian O. von Kalinowski ed., LexisNexis Group 2009)
•	Whole Foods/Wild Oats: D.C. Circuit Reverses and Remands on Motion to Preliminarily Enjoin Already Consummated Merger
•	The Supreme Court Limits Punitive Damages Award In The Exxon Valdez Case To 1:1 Ratio To Compensatory Damages
•	The U.S. Treasury Department Issues Proposed National Security Regulations for Foreign Investments Falling Within the Purview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
•	Lifting the Fog: Google/DoubleClick Demystified
•	The Supreme Court Rules Against TV’s “Judge Alex,” Finding That an Agreement to Arbitrate Trumps State Administrative Process
•	The European Court of First Instance Upholds the European Commission’s Finding that Microsoft Abused its Dominant Position
•	Reform Of The CFIUS Process In The Wake Of Dubai Ports World
•	Supreme Court Holds That Minimum Resale Price Maintenance is Not a Per Se Violation of Antitrust Law
•	Supreme Court Rules that IPO Litigation is Immune from Antitrust Scrutiny
•	Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly: Raising the Bar for Pleadings by Antitrust Plaintiffs
•	US Discovery in Aid of International Legal Proceedings: Developments Since the Intel Decision under Section 1782, DAJV Newsletter (German-American Lawyers Association) (December 2006)
•	"Ex Parte Communications with ICC (And Other International) Arbitrators:  Drawing Ethical Lines"  (ICC Charlottesville Conference, June 2005)
•	Co-Author of Foreign Sovereign Immunity After The Altmann Decision, in Mealey's International Arbitration Report:  Volume 19, Issue #7 (2004)
•	Co-Author and participant in 'Bet-The-Company Litigation' Roundtable Discussion in The National Law Journal, July 30, 2001
•	Andersen v. Andersen, The Claimant's Perspective, Co-Author, The American Review of International Arbitration, 1999
•	Consolidation of International Arbitrations in the United States in the Wake of Boeing, The American Review of International Arbitration (Published in 1995), 1993
•	Disqualifying Lawyers in Arbitrations: Do the Arbitrators Play Any Proper Role?, The American Review of International Arbitration, 1990

Admissions

•	District of Columbia 2006
•	New York 1985
•	U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York 1988
•	U.S. District Court Southern District of New York 1988
•	U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia 2006

Education

•	UCLA School of Law, 1984 J.D. Order of the Coif
•	University of California at Berkeley, 1980 B.A. With High Honors; Phi Beta Kappa