Peter Conti-Brown

Tel. 202.888.1741 | Fax 202.888.7792 | 1900 L Street, NW, Suite 312, Washington, DC 20036

Peter Conti-Brown is an Assistant Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and served as Of Counsel to Gupta Wessler PLLC from 2013 through 2016. His work with the firm focused on appellate litigation and policy consulting, with an emphasis on administrative law, banking, bankruptcy, consumer protection, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Peter graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford Law School, and Princeton University, where he received an M.A. and Ph.D. in history. He joined the firm in August 2013 after his judicial clerkships with the Honorable Gerard E. Lynch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

As a legal scholar and a financial historian, Peter studies central banking, financial regulation, and public finance. He was previously the John R. Irwin Fellow in History at Princeton (2014-2015), an Academic Fellow at Stanford Law School (2010-2015), and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School (2014). His book, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, was published by Princeton University Press in January 2016. Peter’s articles have appeared in the Yale Journal on Regulation and the Stanford, UCLA, and Washington University Law Reviews, among other journals. He is also the editor, with David Skeel, of the book When States Go Broke: Origins, Context, and Solutions for the American States in Fiscal Crisis, published by Cambridge University Press.

During his time with the firm, Peter worked on briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals on a range of topics–including the constitutionality of California’s background-screening laws, the interpretation of FCC regulations on spamming via text messages, and the way that bankruptcy law treats underwater mortgages. Peter took a lead role in the firm’s representation of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case concerning the restructuring of Argentina’s sovereign debt and he has provided consulting services to the American Federation of Teachers on issues including public finance and Wall Street reform.

Peter has been quoted in print and online articles published by The Atlantic, The Economist, The New York Times, and Reuters, and has appeared on C-SPAN and National Public Radio. He has testified on Federal Reserve reform before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Between college and law school, Peter taught high school in New York City. While in law school, he worked as a legal and financial policy consultant to the AFL-CIO’s Office of Investment and to Damon Silvers, Deputy Chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, and as a summer associate at Hogan & Hartson and Quinn Emmanuel Oliver Urquhart & Hedges. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.