Sara A. Ricciardi

Sara Ricciardi is Counsel in the Firm’s Litigation Department. She represents clients in a variety of complex commercial litigations, with a focus on securities matters, shareholder and derivative actions, and government and internal investigations. 

Sara regularly defends issuers, directors, and financial institutions in shareholder and derivative actions in federal and state courts, as well as a range of clients in proceedings brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, and other regulatory authorities. Sara has extensive experience representing clients in litigations arising from corporate transactions, including the acquisitions of HCA and Laureate Education by KKR, as well as the $30+ billion tender offer for Endesa, S.A. Sara has also represented Fairfield Greenwich Group entities and associated individuals in federal and state litigations arising out of the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, including a consolidated class action litigation, derivative litigation, direct litigation by a fund, and proceedings in bankruptcy court by the Madoff Trustee. Her experience includes the representation of a former hedge fund portfolio manager in a criminal insider trading prosecution and trial in New York federal court and the representation of a former corporate officer in connection with U.S. securities proceedings and a criminal investigation and trial in France. 

Sara's representative matters include:

• KKR, its founders and its senior officers in shareholder derivative litigation related to KKR’s corporate reorganization;
• Investment managers PAAMCO and Prisma in tort litigation arising from investments by the Kentucky Retirement Systems;
• Board of Pacific Gas and Electric Company in shareholder derivative lawsuits and investigations related to the 2017 and 2018 California wildfires, as well as in emergence from bankruptcy;
• Special Committee of General Growth Properties in litigation arising from its $9.25 billion acquisition by Brookfield Property Partners;
• Stonepeak in connection with claims arising from its investment in Akumin;
• KKR in international arbitration and related cross-border litigation in connection with claims by KKR alleging fraudulent breach of representations and warranties;
• KKR in shareholder actions challenging multibillion-dollar transactions, including acquisitions of HCA and Laureate Education; and 
• Fairfield Greenwich Group entities and associated individuals in federal and state litigations arising out of the Madoff Ponzi scheme. 

Sara received a B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale University in 1999 and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Moot Court Board, in 2002.