Peter Zeughauser is one of the legal industry’s premier strategists. A broadly skilled trusted advisor, he counsels leaders of top-ranked global, international, national, regional, and boutique firms on the challenges and opportunities they face as a result of the internationalization, consolidation, and segmentation of the market for legal services. His consulting practice includes significant work in China, where he maintains a Zeughauser Group office and advises a number of leading Chinese law firms.
Peter developed the Zeughauser Group’s now widely used framework for law firm strategic planning, and its approach to merger and acquisition work (both described below).
Clients benefit from Peter’s extensive background in both consulting and legal practice, including over a decade as senior vice president and general counsel of The Irvine Company. Under Peter’s leadership, the company’s legal department was ranked by the National Law Journal as one of the country’s top ten and cited for being in the vanguard of a powerful client-led legal industry reform movement. He served for ten years on the board of directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel, which he chaired in 1991.
The National Law Journal has also recognized Peter as one of 50 Legal Business Trailblazers and Pioneers who have “truly moved the needle in facilitating the changing ways that law firms conduct business.” He was lauded for sparking the use of alternative fee arrangements and for being the first general counsel to use RFPs to hire outside counsel.
Peter is the author of Lawyers Are From Mercury, Clients Are From Pluto (ClientFocus Press, 1999).
As a legal analyst, Peter is frequently quoted and featured in publications as diverse as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, The Washington Post, The American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, Corporate Counsel, and the New York Law Journal. He is a sought-after speaker at law firm retreats and industry gatherings and has shared his insights on law firm management as a contributing editor and columnist for The American Lawyer magazine since 1996.
Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he was elected to Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society.
