He received a Juris Doctor magna cum laude, in 1980 from Harvard Law School.

He served as a law clerk to Judge Irving Loeb Goldberg of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, from 1980 to 1981.

From 1981 to 1986, he was an associate at the law firm of Damon Morey LLP in their Buffalo office.

From 1986 to 2015, he was a founding partner of the law firm of Connors & Vilardo, LLP., in Buffalo, where he conducted a wide range of civil and criminal litigation in State and Federal courts at the trial and appellate levels.

[1][2][3][4][5] On February 4, 2015, President Barack Obama, on the recommendation of Senator Chuck Schumer,[6] nominated Vilardo to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, to the seat vacated by Judge Richard Arcara, who assumed senior status on January 3, 2015.