Peter Felix Armstrong
Of Counsel
Postconviction, appellate, and prison and jail civil rights work. Admitted in various federal courts, Minnesota, and Alabama. Not licensed in Virginia.
Peter Felix Armstrong is Of Counsel to Valley Legal, PLLC, where he supports the firm’s postconviction and civil rights work.
Licensure and Role
Peter is licensed in Minnesota and Alabama and is admitted in a number of federal courts, listed below. He is not admitted to the Virginia State Bar. He does not advise on Virginia law, does not represent clients in Virginia state courts, and does not hold himself out as a Virginia attorney. He appears in the courts where he is admitted and, where a court permits it, on admission pro hac vice. Matters governed by Virginia law remain the responsibility of a Virginia-licensed attorney.
Background
Peter was born in Northwest Florida, the son of an engineer and a nurse. Like many people, he did not think highly of attorneys until he needed one. After he was charged with serious crimes and faced prison time, he learned how much an attorney can matter. That is when the law found him.
His path to practice began in a state prison, helping other prisoners challenge their convictions and sentences. He spent years as an institutional law clerk before his release. Working full time as a paralegal, and grateful to be in law school at all, he earned his Juris Doctor from Mitchell Hamline School of Law, graduating magna cum laude.
Peter knows from his own life that there is a real need for capable postconviction and appellate representation by attorneys who understand both what it means for a client to have their freedom at stake and the toll carried by the people who live through it on the outside.
He and Malcolm Beckett met in law school, an unlikely pairing of a former prisoner and a former police officer, and found a shared interest in criminal appeals, postconviction relief, and civil rights litigation.
Peter’s focus is on postconviction remedies, appeals in state and federal court, and civil rights litigation arising from conditions in prisons and jails.
Education
- Juris Doctor, magna cum laude — Mitchell Hamline School of Law
- B.A., Music Performance, cum laude — University of West Florida
Bar and Court Admissions
- Supreme Court of Alabama
- Minnesota Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama
Not admitted in Virginia.
Scholarly Writing
Peter Felix Armstrong, Education Behind Bars: A History of Prisoner Education within the Florida Department of Corrections and Suggestions for the Future, 44 Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice, Iss. 1, Art. 1 (2023), available at open.mitchellhamline.edu.
Valley Legal, PLLC is a law firm registered in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Peter Felix Armstrong is not licensed to practice law in Virginia.