Attorney Profiles

Mario E. Utreras, principal and founder of Utreras Law Offices, has practiced extensively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, as well as in the civil and criminal courts of Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McLean County, and the Illinois Court of Appeals. He is licensed to practice in the State of Illinois, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois (General and Trial Bar) and the Central District of Illinois. He has also represented employers and individuals before local, state, and federal administrative agencies.

Mr. Utreras received his B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Illinois, Champaign, and his law degree from the University of Iowa, where he was a Member and Managing Editor of the Iowa Law Review. In law school, he externed for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund ("MALDEF") and for Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge John A. Jarvey in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

He previously served as a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, as an associate at Gardner Carton & Douglas, and worked in the public sector, including for the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel's Office, the Social Security Administration's Office of the General Counsel, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, and with the U.S. Department of Justice, in its Attorney General's Honor's Program.  He has also served as an adjunct law professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, teaching Appellate Advocacy.

Mr. Utreras is past president of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois (HLAI) and formerly sat on the Board of Directors for Gads Hill Center.  He is also a past graduate of the United Neighborhood Organization's (UNO), Metropolitan Leadership Institute (MLI), a program focused on developing the leadership potential of Latino professionals in the Chicagoland area.  He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association. Mr. Utreras is fluent in Spanish.