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 Law Clinic from 1997 to 1999. She is licensed in Illinois and Minnesota. 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 is licensed to practice law in Illinois.
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, Department of Labor, Immigration Courts, and Board of Immigration Appeals. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). 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.
Kevin A. Raica
Associate Attorney
Kevin is a dedicated immigration attorney with nearly seven years of experience representing a diverse range of clients before the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of State, Immigration Courts, Board of Immigration Appeals, U.S. District Courts, and the U.S. Courts of Appeal. He received his J.D. in 2004 from Chicago-Kent College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2000.
While focusing his practice in the area of waivers, removal defense, and the consequences of criminal convictions on immigration status, Kevin also has a wide range of experience representing employers in their efforts to obtain visas for foreign workers. Kevin has conducted I-9 audits and advised employers about I-9 best practices. Kevin is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He was named an Illinois Rising Starin 2010 and 2011 by Super Lawyers magazine. He is licensed in Illinois.
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.
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.