The Firm
Leadership | Commitment | Integrity | Results | Compliance
The primary areas of civil law we practice are in the fields of real property; wills, trusts, and estate planning (including pre and post-nuptial agreements); and all aspects of business law from formation to dissolution to protecting intellectual property rights.
Expert in commercial and residential real estate negotiations and contracts, Michele has enjoyed a lifetime working with and in entertainment law both as a performing artist and representing internationally acclaimed recording artists.
Often to serve our clients, we work with other law firms. An example is a client who is a designer in NYC but also the UK. Fox Rothschild’s legal team worked with us to faciliate our client’s goals. We do what is necessary in the best interests of our clients. Nothing less.
Known as a strong and savvy negotiator with an innate talent for successfully mediating disputes, Michele is proactive in identifying and addressing issues, and steering persuasive negotiations integral to ensuring positive outcomes for her clients.
Known for her excellent business acumen with the ability to provide oversight and manage complex projects while sustaining extreme attention to detail to ensure documents are drafted to perfection —- she possesses a natural flair for building strong long-term business relationships backed by mutual respect, trust and confidence.
Attorney Michele A. Peters
Michele Peters came to the practice of law later in life after prior successful careers in real estate, entertainment, and teaching. She is a graduate of New York Law School and Syracuse University where she graduated with performance honors in music and education, with masters work in theater.
Upon graduating law school, she immediately began work at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (now Fried Frank) an international law firm, working in their NY office as an associate in the corporate restructuring department. Her work included the due diligence entailed with public and private companies in out-of-court restructurings and workouts, “prepackaged” and prearranged bankruptcies, traditional Chapter 11 cases, and related transactions, strategy and governance issues.
Michele went on to provide counsel to residential cooperative boards of directors in landlord / tenant matters; property management; general business law; which included claims of housing discrimination; as well as work on residential and commercial real estate transaction matters.
Moving from the law firm milieu, she took position as in-house Counsel and Director of Sales and New Project Development for Manhattan’s largest independently owned real estate firm prior to opening her own company in 2005. Among her large housing projects which involved the coordination of numerous government agencies, are the Hamilton (cooperative) and the Langston (condominium), both constructed in Manhattan on West 145th Street. They represent the melding of affordable and market rate housing.
Michele’s work as in-house Counsel, covered a myriad of matters including racial and age discrimination defense (notably, Halpert v. Manhattan Apartments, Inc., Slip Op. No. 07-4074-cv (September 10, 2009)), general employment and labor law, as well as marketing and directing the sales training of the approximately 250 sales agents.
Her skills as a negotiator have been among her strongest assets to achieving her clients’ goals.
With nearly 30 years experience in real estate, it was her work as the on-site Sales Director for the Corcoran Group on the MacArthur Associates workout sales effort with Chase Manhattan Bank in the late 1980’s, that fueled her desire to learn more about bankruptcy law and the power of negotiating work-out settlements. In more recent years, she has been engaged to offer counsel to housing communities in Manhattan regarding buy-outs and tenant/landlord matters and conversions for large developments such as the West Village Mitchell-Lama Housing Project.
As a lawyer, Michele rarely assists her clients in only one area of the law.
In April 2013, the Real Deal reported on a residential cooperative transaction at the esteemed Beresford (211 Central Park West, Manhattan) for which Michele represented the homeowners who were facing foreclosure. She was able to successfully postpone the sale four times until a qualified purchaser was approved by the Board of Directors which turned a foreclosure proceeding into assets acquired. The proceeds placed into trust provide for her clients’ care.
From 2007 until the program’s cessation in 2012, her firm was engaged by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York as a Site Selection Consultant to provide services as part of a large initiative undertaken by the State of New York to acquire much-needed residences for the state’s developmentally disabled citizens. Dozens of dwellings were acquired by the State and the desperate needs of many of our disabled residents were met.
The program called CitiSearch, Phase I and Phase II, became the model for the upstate NY program.
Michele’s work representing the purchasers in a complex real estate transaction was awarded Third Place recognition in the Real Estate Board of New York’s (REBNY) Deal of the Year Awards 2011.
There have been several matters that have called upon the expertise of outside counsel who work along side Michele. In this respect, the firm offers a full spectrum of services to our clients.
Having owned the Weichert Realtors real estate franchise in Manhattan located at Park Avenue, Michele can offer counsel as to the benefits and pit-falls of owning a franchise.
From 2009 through 2013, Michele served as a court appointed mediator in the New Jersey State Mortgage Foreclosure program negotiating settlements between lenders and home owners.
An active member of the New York and New Jersey State Bar Associations, as well as the New York City Bar, Michele is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey, as well as the States of New York and New Jersey.
Michele is a frequently sought guest speaker and quoted in the areas of finance and real estate for national and local media. Her media credits include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York Business, The Real Deal, Brokers Weekly, The Cooperator, The Bergen Record, as well as other consumer and professional publications.