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Alumni Bios

USC Gould School of Law

Peter Steinwachs '08 LLM, '10 JD has traveled the world for his studies, his work and his family. Steinwachs grew up in Germany and studied at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he majored in law and took classes in the Japanese studies and philosophy departments. During an exchange year in law at Doshisha University in Japan, he met his future wife, Margaret, an L.A. native who was on exchange from a California university. Later, while she was working on her MSW at USC, Steinwachs was still studying in Germany. But he came to visit her. "I hung out at the law library," he says, "and I fell in love with the campus and pictured myself being a student here."

After earning his degrees at Gould, he spent more than four years as a corporate associate with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York and in London. Steinwachs started in May as associate general counsel at the Yale Investments Office, which manages the Yale endowment, in New Haven, CT.

Why did you choose Gould?

I was impressed by the Trojan Network, and I wanted to be a part of it. A lot of our friends went to USC, and they told me what it meant to be part of the Network. When I moved to the United States, before I started at USC, I worked as a paralegal at a real estate boutique law firm in Santa Monica. One of the partners I worked with was an alumnus, and he was the most amazing lawyer and person. Seeing him engage with the law school by mentoring law students and attending events made me feel that it would be nice to have this community and be part of this family.

What have been the benefits of earning an LLM and a JD?

The LLM is aimed at foreign lawyers or those who went to law school outside the U.S., so the LLM is great for meeting lawyers from around the world and building your international network. You also get a targeted exposure to U.S. law because you pick your own classes. The JD, for me, completed that picture. From my experience in the upper-division classes with JD students during my LLM studies, I felt like there was more I wanted to learn. The JD was the way for me to charter my own mix of corporate transactional classes, but also learn more about the fundamentals of U.S. law and the legal system.

How did Gould prepare you for your career?

There is a lot of guiding and mentorship that happens within the law school and alumni community, and that was probably the best preparation for my legal career. For example, at the annual mentor lunch, I was paired with mentors. They guided me through the interview process and later on when choosing employment and giving me tips on being a junior associate. With some of them, I'm still in touch.

What brought you to Yale?

I worked one year as an associate fellow at the Office of the General Counsel at USC during my deferral year after graduation. (Many firms deferred incoming associates in 2010 because of the recession.) I realized a very strong sense of purpose and the feeling that by working in higher education I was serving a cause that I believed was noble. It sounds a bit corny, but I believe that. Working at the Investments Office here at Yale is kind of taking me back to that experience. I feel that I am serving a purpose that I believe in while doing interesting corporate legal work.

How do you balance work and family?

Working at a busy New York law firm taught me to live in the moment and take opportunities as they arrive. Since I moved in-house, my life has become more predictable. I immediately feel that there is more balance now. I find spending time with my family to grant me the greatest reprieve from work-related stress, and in my new job, I try to make it a point to be home for dinner — although I may continue to work from home afterward.