Peter Rawlings joined Spivak Lipton in 2025. He primarily represents labor unions in organizing campaigns, collective bargaining, arbitrations, administrative proceedings, and litigation in state and federal court.
He came to the firm following a clerkship with the Honorable Frederic Block in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He graduated magna cum laude from NYU School of Law in 2024, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow.
While at NYU, he spent both summers as a Peggy Browning Fellow, first with Spivak Lipton and then with New York State United Teachers. During law school, he was also an executive editor of the NYU Law Review, a research assistant to Prof. Cynthia Estlund, and intern with Region 2 of the National Labor Relations Board. At convocation, he received both the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Prize and the Ann Petluck Poses Memorial Prize for his litigation work in the school’s employment law clinic.
Prior to law school, Peter was a journalist and organizer in New York City, and helped lead successful campaigns to unionize his last two newsrooms with the NewsGuild and Writers Guild of America, East.
Education
NYU School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude
Northwestern University, M.S.J.
Cornell University, B.A., cum laude
Admissions
State of New York
Publications
Author, Against Federal Preemption of State Unemployment Regimes: Eliminating Waiting Periods for Striking Workers, 27 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 1097 (2025)
Author, Stirring Up Worker Litigation: Why Courts Should Notify Arbitration-Bound Plaintiffs of FLSA Collective Actions, 99 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1819 (2024)
Co-Author, Second Circuit Rebuffs Starbucks Strategy of Seeking Rank-and-File Employee Discovery in Labor Law Injunction Proceeding, Justia Verdict (June 4, 2024)