Karim Basaria

KARIM BASARIA represents corporate clients, individuals, and many of the world’s largest professional services firms in high-stakes litigation, white collar, and regulatory enforcement matters. As a former Certified Public Accountant, Karim has a combination of legal and accounting skills that have enabled him to play a leading role in a variety of matters involving complex financial accounting, economic damages, and audit issues.

Karim’s experience includes multiple federal securities class actions; arbitrated disputes; internal investigations; state and federal civil litigation matters involving claims of breach of contract, fraud, professional negligence, unfair competition, and other business torts; and enforcement matters initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations.

Chambers USA recognized Karim as an “Up and Coming” lawyer for Nationwide Accountant and Auditor Liability (2025) and Illinois Litigation: General Commercial (2025). Clients praised his abilities, commenting that he is a “superstar in the making” and he has an “outstanding understanding of accounting and audit issues, enabling him to digest complex subject matters quickly and efficiently.”

Karim’s representative matters include:

• Represents Big Four professional services firm in pending securities class actions brought in state and federal court involving claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933.
• Represents multiple major public accounting firms in civil litigation involving claims of negligence, fraud, breach of contract, aiding and abetting fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Represents multiple major professional services firms and individual auditors in investigations initiated by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and PCAOB’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations.
• Secured award of no liability following arbitration hearing on behalf of a major professional services firm in dispute involving claims of fraud, unfair competition, and alleged misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Secured dismissal of federal securities claims against major professional services firm in putative class action lawsuit involving claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933.
• Represented Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies through internal investigations and SEC enforcement matters involving allegations of price fixing, fraud, potential violations of environmental regulations, and improper accounting.
• Conducted an internal investigation for the special committee of the board of a publicly traded company in connection with whistleblower allegations against senior management.
• Secured voluntary dismissal of claims against major professional services firm in arbitration dispute involving alleged breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
• Secured favorable decisions in state court and state licensing board actions against a large public accounting firm and individual auditors alleging breach of contract, professional negligence, and violations of professional auditing standards.
• Successfully defended firms and individuals in numerous confidential SEC and PCAOB investigations.
• Successfully represented Big Four professional services firm in opposing motion to compel production of materials in response to a third-party subpoena served in federal securities class action.

Karim has also prosecuted judicial officers before the Illinois Courts Commission on behalf of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, including the examination of witnesses and the delivery of opening statements and closing arguments.

Prior to law school, Karim was a Certified Public Accountant in Illinois, where his practice focused on financial statement audits of public entities and forensic accounting matters.

Karim is actively involved in the firm’s recruiting efforts and plays a leading role in the legal community. He serves as a co-chair of the firm’s Summer Committee in Chicago, which oversees the firm’s summer associate program each year, and is engaged in Sidley’s training and mentoring programs.

In addition, Karim serves as a board member and treasurer of Illinois Legal Aid Online, which, for more than 20 years, has provided tools that open opportunities to justice so that people with limited access to the legal system can solve their problems. Karim also is a board member of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Since 1969, the Lawyers’ Committee has operated as Chicago’s preeminent nonprofit civil rights legal organization, producing important victories in fair housing, hate crime, education, and other cornerstone civil rights cases.

Karim maintains an active pro bono practice. Most recently, Karim represented an elementary school student in an appeal of an exclusionary discipline decision. In partnership with co-counsel, Karim was able to help the student fully reinstate without maintaining a record of expulsion.

Karim was also involved in Ms. J.P. v. Barr, a lawsuit in which Sidley has partnered with Public Counsel to represent a class of parents who were forcibly separated from their children due to the family separation policy implemented by the U.S. government in 2017. Sidley was honored with the 2019 Public Counsel Pro Bono Award in connection with the firm’s work in the Ms. J.P. litigation. In addition, Karim assisted in the firm’s representation of a putative class of immigrant visa applicants challenging Presidential Proclamation 9945, an order requiring applicants to prove that they will be covered by adequate health insurance or that they will be able to pay for reasonably foreseeable medical costs.