Rocky L. Peterson is a partner of Hill Wallack LLP. He is partner-in-charge of the firm’s School Law and Municipal Law Practice Groups and a member of its Litigation Division. He concentrates his practice in general litigation, municipal law, school law and labor and employment issues.

Mr. Peterson formerly served as director of law for the City of Trenton Law Department where he was responsible for the supervision of internal staff, as well as municipal prosecutors and outside counsel on a variety of corporate, municipal, finance and litigation matters. He was also responsible for negotiating with various collective bargaining groups in the City of Trenton and achieved agreements with the PBA, TSOP (supervisory officers bargaining unit), and the Firefighters Union. Mr. Peterson also served as counsel to the City Council of the City of Trenton in addition to his role as chief legal administrator for the mayor of the City of Trenton.

Prior to joining Hill Wallack, Mr. Peterson served as deputy attorney general for the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, Trial and Appellate Section (1978-83). He has published opinions in the NJ Supreme Court, NJ Federal District Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Leadership

Mr. Peterson is active in numerous professional and community organizations. In 1991, he was appointed to the Disciplinary Review Board of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and was Chairman of the Board from 2001 - 2004. A member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, he has served as chair of both the NJSBA Minorities in the Profession and Bar/Law School Liaison Committees. He is also a past member of the NJSBA Long Range Planning Committee and of the District VII Ethics Committee of the Mercer County Bar Association. He has lectured at the Widener School of Law Trial Techniques Program, Delaware University, and served as associate professor of legal research at Mercer County Community College. He has served on the American Bar Association’s Tort & Insurance Practice Section as vice-chair of Employer-Employee Relations. He is a frequent guest lecturer for New Jersey State Bar Association ICLE and the Lorman Institute’s Seminars on Education Law.

Mr. Peterson is a member of the Institute of Municipal Law and has been a presenter at their annual conference. He has served as legal counsel to several Trenton Area non-profit organizations and previously was a trustee of the Garden State Bar Association. He is a member of the Trenton Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and Leadership Trenton Board of Advisors of Edison State College.

Mr. Peterson is admitted to practice in New Jersey (1977), before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1979), and before the U.S. Supreme Court (1992). Mr. Peterson received a degree in law from Cornell University Law School, where he served as director of the Criminal Division of the Cornell Legal Aid Clinic. He is a graduate of Cornell University.