GrayRobinson's Peter Quinter Completes Berlin Marathon
The chair of the law firm's U.S. customs and international trade law group has finished five major marathons and plans a sixth in 2021.
October 07, 2019 at 10:30 AM
3 minute read
GrayRobinson shareholder Peter Quinter went the distance in more ways than one.
The South Florida attorney traveled to Germany to compete in the Berlin Marathon and brought home a medal commemorating his participation Sept. 29. He had no delusions about competing with the serious runners, but he intended to finish and ended up in 29,820th place at 5:46:39. That's a half-hour ahead of the cutoff time when the 26.2-mile race course is closed to stragglers.
The chair of the firm's U.S. customs and international trade law group has a goal of completing the world's six big marathons. He already did Boston, New York, Chicago and London, and he's shooting for Tokyo in 2021.
It's all part of something he started five years ago at 50 when he looked at his family and friends "who are either sick or dead" and decided "I don't want to end up like that." He put priorities on physical and mental fitness, diet and lifestyle. That includes yoga, backpacking, triathlons and running.
"I'm trying to be less of an A personality. That's not easy for me. I want it done now, and I want it done right," he said in a telephone interview a day after flying back from Berlin. Others might not detect much change in his behavior, but he said running "makes me fitter, I sleep better, I eat better."
During the weeklong trip to Germany, he did some work on his phone and iPad but perhaps for the first time didn't visit any law offices.
"You don't stop doing business. You don't stop at night. You don't stop on weekends," said Quinter, a former U.S. customs attorney. "Again that's part of the stress that lawyers have now. It never ends."
He deals with high-value imports on urgent matters. "People need the expert right now who understands the law and has a relationship with a government official who hopefully can resolve the matter now."
With a flood of new tariff orders, Quinter said, "President Trump is keeping me busier than I've been in my 30-year career."
That includes, for example, a losing battle for a manufacturer in Sri Lanka that made hangars from imported Chinese steel beams. U.S. Customs and Border Protection decides issues of whether something is made in China and repackaged to avoid tariffs or actually made elsewhere. In the case of the hangars, U.S. customs agents did not believe Quinter's clients and seized 14 shipping containers, which were abandoned at U.S. ports. Quinter said the U.S. importer and the Sri Lankan manufacturer were unwilling to sue and went out of business.
Back to marathons, he has a six-month training schedule. His wife, Sandy, joined him for the Boston Marathon — and "beat me by a minute, which she still points out frequently."
"Sandy was what we call one and done," he said. But their shared training "was the best time of my 30-year marriage."
His dream is to take six months off and thru-hike the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, which he has walked in sections through the years at the rate of about 10 to 14 miles per day.
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