Senior Counsel
Peter J. Sahlas
Peter Sahlas specializes in complex international disputes over corporate restructurings, bankruptcies, expropriations and nationalisations, most often in countries marked by political risk and economic instability. He is an expert on international legal cooperation in civil, commercial and criminal matters, extradition, international police cooperation, asylum, and issues surrounding arbitrary detention, torture and judicial corruption. For over a decade he served the Office of the President of the Russian Federation as a legal reform advisor, and currently represents multiple sovereign states in addition to individual entrepreneurs and corporations.
Sahlas maintains a significant pro bono practice in human rights law and collaborates frequently with leading academic experts in his areas of expertise.
From 2002 to 2005, he was the inaugural Executive Programme Director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. In 2017, he was elected to the Foundation’s Board of Directors, representing the Estate of the Late Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and since 2024 he has served as Chair of the Board.
He is fluent in French and proficient in Greek and Russian. He holds a degree in international relations from the University of Toronto and two law degrees from McGill University. He is an attorney licensed in New York and a foreign legal consultant licensed in Quebec.