Hariklia Karis

Hariklia (Carrie) Karis is a Kirkland trial lawyer who has extensive lead trial experience in jury and bench trials and arbitration involving personal injury in a broad range of high profile personal injury, product liability and other commercial cases throughout the country. Hariklia was recently recognized by various legal publications as a first class trial lawyer in mass tort and commercial litigation. She was awarded Law360 MVP for Trials in 2022. The American Lawyer named Hariklia “Litigator of the Week” for achieving the first defense win in a bellwether trial involving 3M’s dual-ended combat arms in the largest MDL in US history. She was also recognized by the American Lawyer’s List of Midwest Trailblazers and named a nationwide finalist for the The National Law Journal’s Winning Litigator for 2022. Hariklia’s successful defense of General Motors Corporation was chosen as one of the top defense wins by The National Law Journal. She was also been recognized as a Lead Female Trial Lawyer for her work in large exposure civil litigation. In 2018, she was named to Crain’s list of Most Notable Women Lawyers. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where she taught “Trial Advocacy.”

In her 27 year career at Kirkland, Hariklia has managed and tried massive disaster litigation cases for clients, in which substantial reputational and financial exposure is at risk. She served as co-lead trial counsel for BP in the litigation arising from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in several regulatory agency and government investigations that resulted in numerous nationally televised and highly publicized trials. She also serves as lead trial counsel in the nationwide multi-district litigation involving opioids as well as other pharmaceutical products. She has served as trial counsel for General Motors in state and federal cases arising out of the company’s voluntary recalls related to ignition switches and other safety issues.