Alexandria V. Ruiz

ALEXANDRIA RUIZ is a commercial litigator with experience handling complex business disputes and defending class actions and consumer fraud suits. Alexandria’s practice spans all stages of litigation, from initial fact investigation and drafting pleadings, through discovery and motion practice, to trial and post-trial work. She has significant experience in both state and federal courts, and in arbitration, obtaining successful outcomes at trials and arbitration hearings. She advises clients in complex business disputes, consumer protection defense, contests, breach of fiduciary duty, false advertising and unfair competition. Alexandria represents clients in a variety of industries, including apparel, consumer products and services, e-commerce, financial services, life sciences, media and entertainment, and mortgage banking. She also serves as the associate chair of Unidos@Sidley, one of the firm’s lawyer affinity groups.

Alexandria was named to Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch in America®” 2026 for Commercial Litigation.

The Daily Journal recognized Alexandria and the trial team that successfully represented Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in a rare jury trial class action by naming the case to its Top Verdicts report, highlighting the largest and most significant verdicts in California in 2018.

Prior to joining Sidley, Alexandria clerked for the Honorable Jesus G. Bernal of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before law school, she served as a legislative assistant in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House and a special adviser on Oversight and Legislative Affairs within the United States Department of Education. In addition, Alexandria worked for Congressman George Miller at the Committee on Education and Labor in the House of Representatives.

During law school, Alexandria was external affairs editor of the UCLA Law Review. She also served as the student representative on the Dean Search Committee, president of the Student Bar Association and co-chair of La Raza Law Students Association.

• Counsel to clinical-stage curative cancer therapy company that obtained a US$51 million arbitration award in a breach of contract action following the collapse of a research collaboration.
• Represented online electronics retailer in a class action alleging unfair practices claims relating to pricing on behalf of millions of consumers who made purchases over a nearly four-year period. Successfully obtained summary judgment against one named plaintiff, and then dismissal of entire action.
• Defeated putative class action in the Central District of California against defendants, alleging that a soap manufactured by a Mexican company and distributed in the United States was falsely labeled “natural.” The Order granting the Motion Dismiss was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.
• Defended an operator of an online consumer-lending platform in a state enforcement action alleging that loans originated through the platform by an out-of-state bank were subject to the state’s interest rate and fee regulation. 
• Represented a state-chartered bank issuing consumer credit products through various online consumer-lending platforms in various consumer protection focused state enforcement actions.

• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
• Member, Board of Directors, Community Legal Aid SoCal
• Member and Deputy Regional President for Region XVIII, Hispanic National Bar Association

Alexandria maintains an active pro bono practice prosecuting civil rights lawsuits on behalf of Sidley’s pro bono clients. She was part of a team that received the 2019 Humanitarian Award from the ACLU of Southern California for representing a U.S. citizen who was detained by officers because of her country of origin. Additionally, she is a member of the Central District of California’s CJA trial panel and regularly defends indigent defendants in federal criminal matters.

She was also part of a team that worked alongside pro bono partner Public Counsel to obtain a preliminary injunction requiring the government to provide mental health services to a putative class of immigrant families separated upon entry into the United States. On November 6, 2019, in a groundbreaking 50-page order, Judge Kronstadt of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted the preliminary injunction and certified the class, requiring mental health screenings and treatment to help separated family members begin to address the severe and ongoing trauma associated with family separation. Public Counsel honored the team with its 2019 Pro Bono award in recognition of Sidley’s efforts on this matter. In October 2023, the parties entered into a settlement that will expand the families and children eligible to receive behavioral health services and fund outreach efforts to the families for years to come.

Alexandria has assisted in the following Pro Bono matters:

• Filed an amicus brief on behalf of several immigrant rights organizations, including Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Faith in the Valley, and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, in support of the State of California’s motion to dismiss in a federal action challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 29, which gives local community members input on zoning decisions regarding the placement and operation of for-profit immigration detention facilities. Argued that such detention facilities have uniquely deleterious effects on local communities and thus, are rightly subject to public oversight and accountability. 
• Represented a domestic violence survivor before the California Court of Appeals after the survivor’s husband obtained a default judgment in a family law case through “publication notice,” on the ground that she would not disclose her address to him after fleeing the marriage. Argued that proceeding by publication notice is appropriate in a domestic abuse situation, when the fleeing spouse either cannot provide her address (because she is in a domestic violence shelter) or has legitimate reasons not to provide her address.