Beata Leja

Beata Leja is a principal at the law firm of Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, P.C. Beata’s practice includes both employment-based and family-based immigration law. She is also an adjunct professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, teaching Business Aspects of Immigration Law, and serves as a Board Member for the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a national organization that advocates for the rights and best interests of immigrant children in removal proceedings. She was inspired to practice immigration law based on her own personal immigration story. She was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States when she was 8 years old. Her personal journey was featured in Super Lawyers Magazine.

In 2018, she was recognized by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin as one of the top 40 Under 40 attorneys in Chicago, the only immigration attorney to be listed that year, and was also named a Leading Lawyer and one of Leading Women Lawyers in Illinois by Leading Lawyers, a distinction given to only 15 women practicing immigration law in Illinois. In 2015, 2016, and 2017, she was named an Emerging Lawyer in Immigration Law by Leading Lawyers, a distinction given to only 2% of lawyers licensed to practice law in Illinois. She has also been recognized as a Super Lawyer in Immigration Law, and was awarded the Pro Bono Guardian award by AILA for her pro bono services to the immigrant community. She is an active member of the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), where she serves on the LGBT Committee and the Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Liaison Committee. She has previously served on the Social Security Administration (SSA) Liaison Committee and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) & Department of Labor (DOL) Liaison Committee, as well as other committees. She is also a member of the Federal Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association, and the Advocates Society for Polish lawyers. Beata has conducted seminars about immigration law for students, employers, employees and attorneys. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois and in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Beata is a 2007 graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where she was a member of the Niagara International Moot Court Team (3rd Best Oralist). Prior to law school, she was a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools as a corps member of the national service corps Teach for America. She has a Master of Education from National–Louis University and two Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and International Relations from the University of Southern California. She is fluent in Polish and conversant in Spanish.