Walter Rivera
- Honorable Walter Rivera
- Adjunct Professor
Education
BA, Columbia University
JD, University of Pennsylvania School of Law
Judge of the New York State Court of Claims
Judge Walter Rivera is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A., 1976) and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (J.D., 1979).
On November 8, 2011, he was elected to a four-year term (part-time) as a Town Justice of the Greenburgh Town Court, County of Westchester, State of New York. His term began on January 1, 2012. He was reelected to a second four-year term on November 3, 2015 and served until June 19, 2017.
Judge Rivera was nominated to the New York State Court of Claims by Governor Andrew Cuomo and confirmed by the New York State Senate on June 19, 2017.
Judge Rivera began his legal career in 1979 as a Law Clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals on the Central Legal Research Staff. In September, 1981, he was appointed as an Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York, and served as a trial attorney in the Claims Bureau for three and one half years. He entered private practice in January 1985. He maintained a full-time private practice in Manhattan until December 2011 and a part-time private practice in White Plains until June 19, 2017. His areas of concentration included civil and commercial litigation, commercial transactions, real estate, and government contracts. Prior to being elected as a Town Justice, he served as a court-appointed fiduciary in the role of Court Evaluator, Receiver, Referee, and Guardian.
Judge Rivera was appointed as the first Chair of the Committee on Small Law Firm Management of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in the early 1990’s. In 1997, he was appointed to the Chief Judge’s Task Force on the Profession, Ethics Institute Subcommittee. He has served as an Instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy at Hofstra Law School and guest lectured at various law schools, colleges, and high schools. He has served as a Site Inspector at various law schools as part of the American Bar Association’s law school accreditation process. He served a three-year term on the Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral and Information Service of the American Bar Association from 2006 to 2009. He was appointed to a two-year term as a member of the Greenburgh Board of Ethics which ended in December 2010. He is a Co-Founder and Past President of the Affiliated Lawyers of the Americas, Inc. [“ALTA”], a not-for-profit trade association seeking to promote trade in the Americas and the Caribbean basin within the rule of law.
Judge Rivera is a board member of the statewide Latino Judges Association.