Maria Farooq earned her BA/LLB degree from LUMS in 2012 with a Deans Honour Roll recognition. After completing her LLM in Corporate/Commercial Law from the LSE, Maria gained valuable experience at Lahore-based law firms and rose to the position of Partner at Axis Law Chambers in 2020, a full-service law firm specializing in commercial dispute resolution (litigation and domestic / international arbitration) as well as non-contentious transactional and corporate advisory work.

Her expertise includes international and local arbitration, corporate and commercial litigation, and significant public interest work. She has been recommended by legal directories, such as the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for her corporate / transactional work. Maria is also the only female lawyer from Pakistan who has been recognized by Chambers & Partners in the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Asia-Pacific Awards 2020 in the category Private Practice (Individual) Future Leader. She has also been recognized as the Gender & Diversity Champion (Female) for Punjab by the 1st Women in Law Awards 2021, organized by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Women in Law Initiative Pakistan, Australian Aid, British High Commission, and Islamabad, Group Development Pakistan.

Notably, she also served as Assistant Advocate General at the Office of the Advocate General Punjab. Since 2016, Maria has been an adjunct instructor at SAHSOL, teaching courses such as Introduction to Legal Reasoning and Legal Practice.