Eckert, Paul Robert

Professor of the Practice of Law

Representative Professional Activities and Achievements

Paul R. Eckert teaches courses on securities regulation and the regulation of financial services firms such as broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, and unregistered hedge funds and liquidity providers.

Professor Eckert is a 1996 graduate of William & Mary Law School, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the William and Mary Law Review, was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and received the Lawrence W. I’Anson award. After graduation, he clerked for the Honorable William Lockhart Garwood on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Professor Eckert was previously a partner in Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP’s Securities Group. He retired from the partnership in 2022.

While in private practice at WilmerHale, Professor Eckert represented many of the world’s top financial services firms, corporations, and their leaders and executives in mission-critical investigations and enforcement proceedings by the SEC, the DOJ, state attorneys general and securities regulators, and foreign regulatory authorities. Professor Eckert has represented the Nation’s leading securities trading firms (including high frequency electronic market makers and FinTech firms), investment banks, and asset management firms in a variety of matters involving novel issues under federal and state securities laws.

From 1989 through 1993, Professor Eckert served as a US Navy Lieutenant onboard the USS Wasp (LHD-1). In 2006–2007, he served as an Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.

For many years Eckert served on the Board of Trustees for the William & Mary Law School foundation, chaired the Investment Committee, and was a board member of the 1693 Partners Fund, the principal endowment vehicle for The College of William & Mary.