WAQAS AKMAL is an associate in Sidley’s Los Angeles office and a member of the Commercial Litigation and White Collar practices. His practice focuses on defending corporate and individual clients in government enforcement actions, internal investigations and complex commercial litigation matters. Most recently, he represented clients in connection with investigations and enforcement actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
His experience has earned him recognition in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in the area of Commercial Litigation.
Prior to joining Sidley, Waqas was a law clerk at the Civil Fraud Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. He participated in Sidley’s summer associate program in 2016 and Sidley’s Pro Bono Fellowship Program, where he worked for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
Waqas earned his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where he was the senior articles editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. While attending law school, Waqas served as a teaching assistant for the First Year Legal Research and Writing Program. He received his B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California and an M.P.A. from USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.