New York, February 18, 2026 — Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison announced today that Antonia M. Apps, a prominent trial lawyer, former Deputy Director of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a former federal prosecutor, has joined the firm in New York as a partner in the Litigation Department.
“Antonia is an exceptional litigator with a proven track record,” said Paul, Weiss Chairman Scott A. Barshay. “We are thrilled she has joined Paul, Weiss.”
“Antonia is an extremely accomplished litigator and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers who has tried 19 cases and argued numerous appeals in federal courts,” said Jessica S. Carey, co-head of the Litigation Department. “She combines first-chair trial experience, sophisticated regulatory insight, and the strategic judgment clients rely on in their most consequential matters. She will be a fantastic addition to Paul, Weiss.”
Apps joins the firm after serving in various senior roles at the SEC. From 2023 to 2025, she led the SEC’s New York office, the largest regional office with over 600 attorneys, accountants, investigators, securities compliance examiners and others.
During her tenure as the office’s Regional Director, the New York office brought more standalone enforcement actions and completed more examinations than any other SEC office nationwide. In January 2025, Apps was promoted to Acting Deputy Director of the Enforcement Division, where she helped oversee all of the SEC’s enforcement activities nationwide and manage a 1,300-person division handling the agency’s investigations and trials. In April 2025, Apps was named Deputy Director of Enforcement overseeing the enforcement program in the New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia regional offices.
Before joining the SEC, Apps was a litigation partner at another large law firm, representing financial institutions, corporations, investment banks, executives, asset managers and private equity firms in white collar and internal investigations, regulatory enforcement proceedings and high-stakes commercial litigation. Earlier in her career, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she led many of the government’s highest-profile securities fraud and insider trading prosecutions.
“I have long admired the exceptional talent of the Paul, Weiss litigators, many of whom I have worked with throughout my career,” Apps said. “I am thrilled to be joining this best-in-class Litigation Department with an unparalleled reputation for handling the most complex and high-stakes matters. The entire Paul, Weiss platform has extraordinary depth, and I am looking forward to collaborating across practice areas to deliver excellent client service.”
Apps has received numerous industry accolades. She has been ranked in Chambers USA for White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, where clients and colleagues highlighted her “brilliant legal mind,” and included on The National Law Journal’s “Litigation Trailblazers” and Crain’s New York Business’s “Notable Women in Law” lists. She was also named a Lawdragon Legend in 2025 and was selected as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America each year for a ten-year period. Apps holds degrees from Harvard Law School, Oxford University and Sydney University Law School. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Fred I. Parker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Since 2016, she been a lecturer at Harvard Law School, teaching a course on White Collar Criminal Law & Procedure.
The Paul, Weiss Litigation Department regularly handles significant, high-stakes and complex litigations and enforcement actions for clients that include Fortune 50 corporations and other prominent companies in the financial services, investment, medical device, pharmaceutical, sports, technology, energy, media and insurance industries. The firm’s litigators have a long history of strength and success as trial lawyers, credibility with government officials and regulators, and a track record of courtroom wins and creative out-of-court resolutions.
