Maile Hitomi Solís

As a seasoned litigator with the added benefit of in-house experience, Maile takes pride in her in-depth understanding of her clients and their businesses so she can anticipate their needs, their pain points, and the internal and external pressures they face. With nearly 30 years of experience litigating and counseling clients in all types of commercial litigation, Maile is meticulous, responsive, tough, and strategic.

Since joining Barack Ferrazzano, Maile has represented clients in commercial litigation across the country, focusing on the luxury fashion and cosmetics/beauty space in contract disputes, data privacy, the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”), copyright and trademark infringement, consumer class actions, and employment and customer discrimination. She has obtained victories for Louis Vuitton and Loro Piana in a massive antitrust case alleging impermissible no-poach agreements with retail partners; helped Christian Dior, Inc., Sephora, and Louis Vuitton reach favorable results in BIPA putative class actions; and worked to successfully resolve the high-profile lawsuit filed by Cartier/Richemont against Tiffany & Co.

In addition, Maile spends a significant amount of her practice providing strategic counsel to automotive manufacturers like Audi, Volkswagen, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti on dealer disputes and protests, network development and relationship issues, and policies and procedures. She is often called upon to prepare and defend high-ranking executives in their depositions.

Maile has established herself as a leader at the firm. In addition to co-chairing the Litigation Group, she is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. She has served as co-chair of both the DEI Committee and the Pro Bono Committee and has served on the firm’s Associate Review, Business Development, and Recruiting Committees. An active member of the firm’s Women’s Impact Network (WIN), Maile is deeply committed to the recruiting, mentoring, and advancement of female attorneys at the firm and within the Litigation Group.

Prior to joining the firm, Maile served as Assistant General Counsel of Litigation at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, where she managed and directed complex commercial litigation filed against the company, prepared and defended executives for deposition and trial, counseled the business on litigation and other risks, and recommended approaches to minimize such risks. In addition, Maile spent a substantial portion of her time advising the business on issues relating to cybersecurity, data privacy, and insurance coverage.

While a partner at the litigation boutique of Grippo & Elden, Maile counseled and represented clients in all aspects of the litigation process from discovery through resolution by favorable settlement, trial, alternative dispute resolution, and appeal, including defending the top management of Tribune Company and serving as liaison counsel for more than 100 defendants in the fiduciary duty adversary action in the Tribune bankruptcy.

Maile began her career as a complex commercial litigation associate at the law firm of Jenner & Block, where she represented policyholders in insurance coverage matters, litigated numerous commercial contracting disputes, defended a patent infringement claim, tried a preliminary injunction hearing to enforce a non-compete provision, and first-chaired multiple pro bono hearings.

Maile is passionate about pro bono and has devoted her career to protecting victims of persecution in a broad range of pro bono immigration matters. She has served as a member of the Leadership Council of the National Immigrant Justice Center since 2003 and has obtained grants of asylum, legal permanent residency, U-Visas, DACA, and VAWA approvals for dozens of persons fleeing persecution and violence from around the world. Most recently, Maile represented an Afghan U.S. military interpreter and his family, working to rescue them from Afghanistan through humanitarian parole, and organized firm clinics to help Afghan refugees file asylum and legal permanent residency applications, including personally representing an Afghan asylum seeker in his legal proceedings.