Mr. Ma has represented hundreds of clients in federal and state courts, and federal, state and municipal administrative tribunals. He has won numerous jury and bench trials in both federal and state courts, and has successfully prosecuted appeals for clients in both federal and state appellate courts, resulting in published and unpublished appellate opinions. Representative cases include: John J. Ress v. Office of State Comptroller, 768 N.E.2d 255, 329 Ill App.3d 136 (Ill App. 2002); In re the Marriage of Oleksy, 787 N.E.2d 312, 337 Ill. App.3d 946 (Ill. App. 2003).
Pengtian Ma has helped hundreds of overseas corporate clients establish presence in the United States, and provided his domestic and overseas corporate clients with valuable legal consultations in their business operations. He has also helped thousands of clients who needed legal assistance in immigration matters, including helping clients gain permanent residence in, or avoid deportation from, the United States through his conscientious research and thorough understanding of the law.
Pengtian Ma has received extensive legal education in both the United States and China: a Master’s degree in civil law from the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China, an LLM degree from the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a JD from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, Illinois. He has been the recipient of multiple academic awards: American Jurisprudence Award in Legal Writing, Academic Achievement Award in International Law, and Best Oralist Award in the Charles Evans Hughes Moot Court Competition.
Additionally, Mr. Ma is the author of scholarly articles published in journals of national and international circulation. His article Public Employee Speech and Public Concern: a Critique of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Threshold Approach to Public Employee Speech Cases, published in the John Marshall Law Review, 30 J. Marshall L. Rev. 121 (1996), is often cited by First Amendment legal scholars, and was recently cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in its recent decision in Locurto, et al v. Giuliani, et al, 447 F.3d 159 (2d Cir. 2006).
Pengtian Ma is licensed to practice law in the following jurisdictions:
State of Illinois
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
United States District Courts:
Northern District of Illinois
Northern District of Indiana
Eastern District of Wisconsin
Eastern District of Oklahoma
United States Tax Court
Pengtian Ma possesses a wide range of legal experience in various areas of practice, including Federal and State court civil litigation and criminal defense work, international business, immigration, corporate work, and real estate transactions.