CHICAGO, Oct. 20, 2021 — Aurora Abella-Austriaco will receive a 2021 Difference Makers Award at 1 p.m. CDT on Thursday, Oct. 21, during the 2021 GPSolo Fall Meeting. The Difference Maker Award, presented by the American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division, recognizes an individual who has made a difference in the local community.
Abella-Austriaco is a partner at Valentine Austriaco & Bueschel P.C. in Chicago, an all-women-owned law firm concentrating in the areas of commercial litigation, business litigation and real estate. Her clients range from multinational corporations, state and federal credit unions, title insurance companies, hotel and restaurant owners, home health care agencies, government agencies and business owners.
Abella-Austriaco serves on the Illinois Court Commission and is immediate past president of the National Conference of Bar Presidents. She was on the Park Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission, the Cook County Human Rights Commission and was an elected District 207 school board member. She is past president of the Chicago Bar Association, past president of the Lawyer’s Trust Fund of Illinois and past president of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association.
Abella-Austriaco is currently serving her second term as state delegate to the ABA House of Delegates and is a member of its credentials and admissions committee and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative Council. She also is chair of DePaul University College of Law Diversity Council and sits on the DePaul University College of Law Dean’s Advisory Council. She was appointed by Northern District of Illinois Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to serve on the first-ever racial justice diversity committee. She also served as chair of the 2012 and 2013 Magistrate Merit Selection Panel.
Abella-Austriaco also currently serves on the Illinois Courts Commission, the Board of Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund Inc. and previously served as chair of the Board of ATG Legal Serve Inc.
She was named one of Private Company Director Magazine’s 2021 Outstanding Directors to Watch, and is one of 50 honorees for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer Salute! Women in Law awards. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Outstanding Community Leader Award, the Secretary of State “Justice Laura Liu Trailblazer” Award, the “Sister Margaret Traxler” Award by the Institute of Women Today and the CBA Alliance for Women “Alta Mae Hulett” award. She also was recognized as one of the Top 20 Global Women of Excellence by the 7th Congressional District Multi Ethnic Task Force Day, and was named one of Chicago United’s “50 Business Leaders of Color” and one of “100 Women of Influence in Chicago” by Today’s Chicago Woman and twice as one of “100 Women Making a Difference.”
Click here for a photo of Aurora Abella-Austriaco.
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