Peter Ostroff

About the Author

Peter Ostroff is a long-time Beverly Hills resident of over 50 years who retired in 2017 after a 50-year career as a trial lawyer. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1942. He graduated from Washington University (St. Louis, Mo) in 1964 with a B.A. degree in political science and economics. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1967 with a J.D. degree. He taught law at Monash University Law School in Melbourne, Australia in 1968. He became a member of the Illinois Bar in 1967 and the California Bar in 1969, He clerked for Hon. Shirley M. Hufstedler of the United States Court of Appeal 1969-70, practiced law with Nossaman, Waters, Scott, Krueger & Riordan and successor firms from 1970 to 1980 and with Sidley Austin from 1980 until 2017. During his full time law practice years he was a Committee Chair and Member of the Council of the American Bar Association, Litigation Section and was President of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Since 2018, he has served on the Beverly Hills Planning Commission. In addition to his work on the Commission, Peter has chaired the BHUSD 7-11 Surplus Property Committee and contributed to planning efforts for the District Offices site on S. Lasky Drive and future uses of the Hawthorne School property. He also served as Co-Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the City's Climate Adaptation and Action Plan. He has been married to Anne Y. Ostroff since 2002, has two children, Nick Ostroff and Natalie Anne Cookson and has two grandchildren, Elliott Cookson and Emma Anne Cookson. Some family information is collected under Family Tree in this website. Since April 2024, he has written a weekly column for the Beverly Hills Weekly The columns are collected in this website.