Our mission

The Law Office of Aurora Ramos Donnelly, ARDlaw, is dedicated to providing legal services to people and businesses of foreign countries who are seeking to work or do business in the United States. The Law Office provides counsel that will:

• Remove cultural and linguistic barriers and
• Facilitate successful interaction and results for clients and law firms.

We practice United States law for local and national as well as international clients. Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese clients will feel comfortable working with U.S. attorneys who speak their language and understand their background and business customs.

All of this expertise is delivered at a fraction of the cost that partnering with a large law firm would incur. Having been entrepreneurs, we understand the importance of billing that is commensurate with benefit conferred.

Our senior attorneys have a background in business as well as law and are easily able to contribute legal expertise to corporate projects. Our business background includes cost containment through assisting clients with practical business decisions.

Attorney profile

Aurora Ramos Donnelly is the principal of the firm. She is a past college professor, author, consultant, entrepreneur and blogger. Aurora is a domestic and international multilingual attorney with eight years of transactional experience, general employment litigation, real estate litigation and transactions, finance and capital markets, including due diligence, and the wider aspects of mergers and acquisitions, contract drafting and negotiations, comprehensive legal aspects of advertising, public relations and marketing.

Aurora posts a weekly blog through the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Attorneys in Transition site, where she provides information and opinions regarding changes in the legal profession. In particular, the blog examines how the changes are affecting lawyers' careers. Her work was profiled in May 2010 in Chicago Lawyer magazine (click here to read the article).

Aurora is a native Spanish speaker, with competency in French and Italian and moderate competency in Portuguese. Prior to relocating to the United States, Aurora lived abroad and attended The University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, where she earned degrees in English literature and business management. Her masters in business administration was awarded by Loyola University in Chicago and her J.D. was conferred by The Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Aurora was admitted to practice in Illinois in 2002. As lead attorney, her civil law practice included civil litigation and motion practice dealing with real estate ownership disputes, family law and litigation, contract disputes and incorporations as well other types of business organizations. Aurora tried a major religious discrimination in employment case before the Federal District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. She is a member of the Federal Trial Bar and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Illinois.

Among other projects accomplished are:

• Conducted comprehensive analysis and supervised a group of attorneys in connection with litigation documents with respect to the bankruptcy of a major international chemical company.
• Assisted in the corporate response to a civil investigative demand by the Department of Justice in connection with derivative default swaps activities by the third-largest U.S. bank.
• Conducted analysis and periodically supervised other attorneys with regard to a major international lawsuit by the Italian subsidiary of a large multinational oil and gas conglomerate based in the United Kingdom.
• Conducted analysis of trial materials in a major suit involving mortgages and other real estate finance products for the largest mortgage issuer prior to the collapse of the financial markets.
• Assisted with the preparation of the defense for a major international intellectual property case. Worked in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, conducted supervisory functions with regard to the quality of the discovery documents.

Aurora’s corporate experience includes management and consulting positions at A.R. Donnelly Communications, where her clients included Motorola, Hewitt and Associates, Rand McNally, Abbott Laboratories, Mosby Yearbook, and Anixter, among others. At Time Warner Magazine Company and Sports Illustrated she managed a marketing team and was responsible for maintaining compliance with consumer laws and postal regulations. During a stint at Continental Bank and Trust Company of Illinois, later acquired by Bank of America, she was manager of the Commercial Credit Department.

As an IRS Section 1031 coordinator at a real estate finance company, Aurora assisted clients with complying with the legal requirements of like-kind exchanges of real estate investments. As transaction manager she conducted due diligence for the purchase of mortgage loans and pools of loans for resale and/or securitization.