Practice Areas
Litigation
White Collar & Investigations
Securities Litigation
Ethics & Compliance
Business Litigation
Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility
Financial Institutions
Financial Services & Investments
Digital Media & Entertainment, Gaming & Sports
Sports
Career
Lee S. Richards III represents businesses, corporate boards, and individuals in white-collar criminal defense, securities enforcement defense, regulatory proceedings, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigations. He has amassed extensive experience representing investment banks, hedge funds, public companies, investment advisers, corporate officers and directors, and other professionals in investigations and proceedings. These include matters before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), New York Attorney General’s Office, New York District Attorney’s Office, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., and other governmental entities and self-regulatory agencies. He also has extensive trial experience in both criminal and civil matters.
Lee has served as the receiver in cases involving Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and Westgate Capital Management, LLC. He was also appointed by the federal court to serve as independent examiner for Computer Associates and is currently leading the firm's independent compliance consultant team for one of the largest global banks. He has also served as SEC special compliance counsel, receiver, and trustee in the liquidation of five securities firms, as well as three major insider trading cases. In addition, Lee lead a team of Perkins lawyers acting as the Independent Compliance Consultant for JP Morgan, approved by the OCC, Federal Reserve and CFTC and appointed to review the Bank’s trade surveillance systems and policies from end-to-end.
A former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Lee handled major prosecutions of insider trading and securities fraud, including the first successful criminal prosecution of an insider trading case in U.S. history. In that high-profile securities fraud case, he developed the misappropriation theory of insider trading still prevalent today.
Lee is a recipient of the DOJ’s Award for Superior Performance, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Law Journal, and the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was named one of The National Law Journal’s Top 50 Litigation Trailblazers & Pioneers, and Chambers USA has ranked him as a leading individual in White Collar & Government Investigations for 16 consecutive years and a leading individual in Securities Regulation-Enforcement from 2011 to 2024. Lee is also an American College of Governance Counsel Fellow.
