Peter Baugher

Peter V. Baugher is a nationally recognized attorney and a partner at the Chicago-based law firm Schopf & Weiss LLP. Baugher prosecutes and defends commercial cases throughout the United States, and has won major trials and arbitrations, including a multi-million dollar claim against the U.S. Government, a multi-million dollar securities action, a multi-million dollar contractual indemnification suit, a million dollar jury verdict in a business acquisition dispute,and a trial in Delaware Chancery Court. Representing a Texas bank in New York federal court, Baugher obtained a $53 million judgment against Iraq’s primary commercial bank and then pursued the Central Bank of Iraq for further relief through successful Second Circuit appeals. He has testified as a witness and as an expert on U.S. securities laws and litigation at a trial in the Bahamas.

Awards and Recognition
Baugher has been recognized both in Illinois and nationally as a top lawyer, including a recommendations by Peers for Leading Lawyers Network, Peers for Best Lawyers in America, and selection among Illinois Top 10 Super Lawyers in 2013.

Clients
Baugher has represented clients in matters of breach of contract and fraud, commercial banking, securities fraud and insider trading, corporate control and intra-corporate disputes, patent and trademark infringement, trade secrets, employee non-compete and confidentiality agreements, antitrust, class action, and product liability claims. His clients have included:


 * AK Steel Corporation
 * Nabisco Corporation
 * Frontier Corporation
 * DeVry
 * Credit Suisse First Boston
 * The Fairchild Corporation
 * Household International
 * Comdisco
 * The Northern Trust Bank
 * Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc.
 * First City-Houston, Texas

Boards and Memberships
Baugher chairs U.S. Senator Mark Kirk’s Judicial Advisory Board charged with screening Illinois federal judicial candidates for the Senator's consideration.

He is President of the Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association, and was the chief drafter of Illinois’ International Commercial Arbitration Act.

Baugher chaired both the Chicago Bar Association’s Federal Civil Practice Committee and its International and Foreign Law Committee, is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, and served on the Seventh Circuit Bar Association's American Jury Project Commission. He is a member of the Illinois Bar and the Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Baugher is a member of the Executive Committee of Schopf & Weiss.

Baugher often lectures on litigation topics to bar groups and industry associations. He is a director of the Sabre Foundation, a leading international book donation organization, and was for many years a director of the Illinois Humanities Council. He received the Arnold Berlin Award for Service to Princeton University. A statewide survey published in Chicago Magazinehas twice ranked Mr. Baugher one of the top ten attorneys in Illinois.

Education
Baugher received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and graduated from Yale Law School. At Yale, he served as an editor of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. Following law school, Baugher clerked for Seventh Circuit Judge Philip W. Tone. Before joining Schopf & Weiss, Baugher was a partner at Schiff Hardin & Waite, and Adams, Fox, Adelstein & Rosen.