Our Attorneys
Maria Baldini-Potermin
Attorney
Maria has been recognized nationally as a leading immigration attorney. In July 2010, Maria was the recipient of the Edith Lowenstein Award for Excellence in Advancing the Practice of Immigration Law from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). In 1999, she received the Human Rights Volunteer Award from the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. She was the recipient of two National Association for Public Interest Law Equal Justice Fellowships to work with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota in St. Paul (1997 - 1999) and the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago (1999 - 2001).
Maria obtained her B.A. degree magna cum laude from the University of Dayton (Ohio) in International Studies and Spanish in 1990 and then spent four years working with detained noncitizens on the Texas-Mexico border at the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR), including two years as an accredited representative. She trained law students and traveled to ProBAR during law school breaks with the Asylum Law Project. She received an award for Outstanding Service in Defense of Human Rights through Asylum Representation from ProBAR in 1995. Maria received her J.D. degree cum laude in 1997. She served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School's Immigration Clinic from 1997 to 1999. She speaks Spanish fluently.
Katheryn M.T. Wasylik
Associate Attorney
Katheryn is an experienced and dedicated attorney providing effective and efficient legal counsel to a wide variety of clients concerning business and family related immigration law. She is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in Spanish and Chicano Studies.
Katheryn has practiced immigration law exclusively since 2002. She manages a practice area that involves working with corporations, institutions, and individuals in preparing nonimmigrant visa petitions, labor certification applications, and employment-based visa petitions, including for priority workers, professionals, skilled workers, and investors. She also represents families, and defends individuals, including asylum seekers, in removal proceedings. She represents clients before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Labor, Immigration Courts, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and currently co-chairs the Chicago Chapter Illinois Department of Economic Security Liaison Committee. Katheryn has lectured on a variety of immigration law topics and is fluent in Spanish.
Julie Reiter Pellerite
Associate Attorney
Julie received her J.D. degree in 2009 from the University of Dayton School of Law. She is a 2003 graduate of the University of Dayton where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in International Studies with a concentration in human rights and Spanish.
Prior to joining Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C., Julie worked with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality of Northwestern Ohio's immigrant worker program, the Office of the Ohio Attorney General’s civil rights section, Ayuda, Inc. in Washington, D.C., and Franciscans International in Geneva, Switzerland as development coordinator. In 2009, she received the Brother Raymond Fitz Commitment to Community Award for her work serving the Dayton community. Julie is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and the Chicago Bar Association. She speaks Spanish.
Olivia Villegas Law Graduate
Olivia graduated from law school in May 2010 from DePaul University College of Law. She plans to practice immigration law following the passage of the Illinois bar exam.
Olivia was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where she lived until she was eight years old. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 2001 to 2006, double majoring in Political Science and Latin American & Caribbean Studies. She studied Arabic and Middle Eastern politics for a semester at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. After graduation, Olivia and worked for the Dowagiac Migrant Program in Michigan for a year before starting law school at DePaul Law School. In her first year of law school, she and a classmate founded the Society for Asylum & Immigration Law. Olivia spent the summer of 2008 in Chiapas, Mexico, interning at the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights. She previously volunteered at Life Span Center for Advocacy and Legal Services for a year and a half, working with immigrant women who have experienced domestic violence.
Our Staff
Dalia San Miguel
Senior Administrative Assistant
Dalia is from Chicago. Before joining Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C., Dalia worked for over ten years at a record company as a personal assistant and office manager. She has extensive experience working as an office manager, travel coordinator, and administrator of accounts receivable and payable. Dalia speaks Spanish fluently.
Olga I. Villa
Senior Legal Assistant
Olga is a senior legal assistant at Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C. She earned a Associate in Applied Science Degree in Paralegal Studies from Robert Morris University. She began her experience working in the immigration law field in 1987. Olga is fluent in Spanish.
Trisha K. Teofilo graduated with a B.A. Honors Degree, magna cum laude from Loyola University Chicago. In 1999, she entered the immigration law field at the St. Frances Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, a program of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. In February 2004, the Board of Immigration Appeals approved her accreditation application to practice immigration law before the Department of Homeland Security. At the Cabrini Center, Trisha supervised the Crime Victims Program, was the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) coordinator, and a pro bono attorney program coordinator. In 2005, Trisha moved to World Relief – Chicago, and in May 2006, she became fully accredited, authorizing her to practice before the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, including the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Immigration Courts. As senior legal assistant with Maria Baldini-Potermin and Associates, P.C., Trisha assists the attorneys with a wide variety of cases and continues to participate in the VAWA/U Visa collaborative in Chicago. She speaks Spanish fluently.
Ada Love
Legal Assistant
Email: ada@baldini-potermin.com
Ada is from British Columbia, Canada. She studied Art and Psychology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During her last semester of college, she interned in the immigration legal services department at World Relief in Chicago. Before joining Maria Baldini-Potermin & Associates, P.C., Ada worked as the legal assistant at the Immigrant Project of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Madison, Wisconsin where she assisted immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, attended local and national trainings in immigration law, and received partial BIA accreditation. After her experience at the Immigrant Project, Ada taught English on Jeju Island in South Korea for 6 months and then served as a legal assistant in a family, bankruptcy and criminal law firm in Wisconsin. Ada enjoys calling upon her personal and professional experience in serving others.
Ellen Miller
Legal Research Assistant
Email: ellen@baldini-potermin.com
Ellen was born and raised in Chicago’s western suburbs. She obtained her BA in International Studies from DePaul University. After completing her undergraduate degree, Ellen worked at World Relief-Chicago as the Citizenship Coordinator and was partially accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals to represent clients before USCIS. Ellen recently finished her first year of graduate school at American University in Cairo, Egypt where she studies International Human Rights Law and Psycho-social Intervention for Forced Migration Studies. She speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and beginning Arabic.
Sara Villegas
Legal Assistant
Email: sara@baldini-potermin.com
Sara was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico and raised in Dowagiac, Michigan. She graduated from Western Michigan University in 2009, where she double majored in Psychology and Spanish. Sara previously worked with noncitizen farmworkers for Farmworker Legal Services in Bangor, Michigan as well as the Telamon Corporation in Decatur, Michigan with migrant children. She is currently studying for her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. Sara speaks fluent Spanish.