Imani N. Maatuka

IMANI MAATUKA focuses her practice on commercial litigation and disputes. Imani has experience advising clients in internal investigations, as well as investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, and state attorneys general. Imani has handled matters involving, among other things, alleged consumer fraud, product liability and mass tort litigation, securities fraud, financial reporting and disclosure issues, market manipulation, auditor independence, and False Claims Act allegations. During her time at Sidley, Imani was selected as a member of The National Black Lawyers’ “Top 40 Under 40” (2024).

Imani earned her J.D. from Washington University School of Law, where she was on the Dean’s List and received the Dean’s Fellowship Award, Dean’s Leadership Award, Dean’s Service Award, and received the highest grade in the Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property Clinic. She also served as publication editor for the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. During her time in law school, she worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the Enforcement Division – Collections Group, Carlson Capital, where she focused on compliance and alternative investments, and Arch City Defenders, assisting with litigation that stemmed from the Ferguson, Missouri, protests. 

Imani graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a B.S. in journalism and mass communications, summa cum laude, and first in her class. Prior to graduation, she participated in the university’s International Business Development Program in China, where she worked closely with international Fortune 500 companies’ accounting and litigation teams.

• Represented a company defending against trade secret allegations, in which she successfully moved to compel arbitration, and, subsequently, a three-arbitrator panel ruled in favor of the company on all counts.
• Represented a company involved in multiple cases arising out of an industrial accident.
• Representing a publicly traded company in an action where she played a key role in successfully arguing that the plaintiff’s claims were barred by the general five-year statute of limitations for civil actions, wherein the plaintiff initiated the action based on its allegations that the company committed fraud over a 10-year period.
• Representing a private equity firm in False Claims Act litigation. 

• The Higginbotham Inn of Court, associate
• Member of The National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40
• Dallas Bar Association
• Dallas Association of Young Lawyers
• J.L. Turner Legal Association
• Bridging the Gap Scholarship, founding board member

Imani maintains an active pro bono practice, and she is a member of the firm’s Pro Bono and Public Interest Law Committee.

• Representing defendant and applied for a writ habeas corpus in a capital case, seeking a reformed sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment.
• Representing a veteran in a benefits appeal before the Air Force Discharge Appeal Review Board.