A partner in the Litigation Department, Walter G. Ricciardi focuses his practice on securities litigation and white-collar and regulatory defense.

Mr. Ricciardi joined Paul, Weiss from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he had been the deputy director of the Division of Enforcement since October 2005. In that capacity, he was a leader in planning and directing the Commission's investigations and other enforcement efforts, and handled many of the Commission’s highest profile investigations and proceedings. From April 2004 to April 2006, Mr. Ricciardi also served as the district administrator of the Boston office of the SEC, where he led the Commission’s enforcement and regulatory programs in the New England region.

Prior to joining the SEC, Mr. Ricciardi spent 20 years with Coopers & Lybrand and its successor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. He rose to become Coopers & Lybrand’s deputy general counsel, and following the merger was appointed leader of the Litigation Practice Group for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Throughout his career at Coopers & Lybrand and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Ricciardi was responsible for representing the firm and its personnel in connection with securities litigation, SEC and other governmental investigations and proceedings. While at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Ricciardi was elected by the firm's partners and served as a member of the firm's Board, which is responsible for overseeing the management of the firm. He was also elected to and served on the Global Oversight Board of the global organization of the PricewaterhouseCoopers firms.

Mr. Ricciardi is recognized in 2010 by Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business for Securities: Regulation: Enforcement. He served as a note and comment editor of the New York University Law Review.