Peter Irwin is the firm’s General Counsel. A partner in the Real Estate Group, Mr. Irwin previously served as Chair from 2012 through 2026. He regularly advises clients on real estate acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, financings and restructurings.
Mr. Irwin is ranked as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA (2026), where clients praise his “unique ability to get into the nuances of issues and yet maintain a bigger picture perspective.” Sources have also described him as “very practical, very commercial and technically excellent.” He is also recommended in The Legal 500 US (2026), where clients have praised him as a “skilled negotiator” whose “judgment, attention to detail, and attentiveness are unparalleled,” and he is recognized as Highly Regarded in Real Estate by IFLR1000.
Mr. Irwin is Chair of the firm’s Space Committee. In that capacity, he was responsible for the negotiation of the firm’s new 20-year lease to relocate its global headquarters to The Spiral, a newly-constructed, state-of-the-art 65-story commercial tower at 66 Hudson Boulevard on the far west side of Manhattan in the Hudson Yards district, as well as the design and build-out of the interior space.
Mr. Irwin frequently writes and speaks on a variety of real estate topics. He recently authored a chapter entitled “Real Property” in the Health Care Mergers and Acquisitions Answer Book (Practising Law Institute, 2024) and is a regular contributing author to the Debevoise Private Equity Report and MarketCheck.
Mr. Irwin is a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He serves on the Board of The Lawyers Committee of Inner-City Scholarship Fund and on the Advisory Board for the Mattone Family Institute for Real Estate Law at St. John’s University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Real Property Law Section and a member of the Real Estate Board of New York. He was selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow for the class of 2012 by the Partnership for New York City. He also completed the Thayer Leadership Development Program at West Point, a premier executive leadership development program.
Mr. Irwin joined Debevoise in 1999 and became a partner in 2004. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 1993 and his J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law in 1996.