Aurora Abella-Austriaco, Principal and Owner of Austriaco & Associates, Ltd., concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial and real estate litigation, construction litigation, mechanic's liens, mortgage foreclosure, mortgage fraud, title insurance claims and other special chancery remedy cases. Prior to forming her own firm in 2009, she worked Of Counsel with Peck Bloom Austriaco and Mitchell LLC for six years and as Corporate Counsel and Managing Attorney for the Indiana operations for Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. for 10 years. Aurora graduated from De Paul University with a B.S. in Finance (1987) and J.D. (1990).

Aurora is currently serving as the 1st Vice President of the Chicago Bar Association, an organization of over 22, 000 lawyers. She served on the board of the Chicago Bar Foundation for 9 years and served as Vice-President of the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) for 2 years. She was elected as the first female and minority President of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers' Association (IRELA), an organization of approximately 1,500 real estate lawyers throughout Illinois. Aurora also served as board member of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI). She is a founding board member of the Filipino American Bar Association, past board member and current member of the Asian American Bar Association and the ISBA Real Estate Section Council. She was also elected to the Board of Directors of Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund, Inc., a bar related title insurance company.

Aurora served her 4th year as Chair of the Tellers Committee of the ABA House of Delegates and her 5th year to the ABA Standing Committee on Meetings and Travel. She is currently serving her 2nd year as Chicago Bar Association delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. She was appointed to the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers Title Guaranty Fund and was recently appointed as Diversity Director for the ABA General Practice Division.

In addition to her bar association involvement, Aurora is also active in the community. She is currently serving her eighth term as Chair of the Cook County States Attorney Asian Advisory Council and her 11th year as Commissioner for the Cook County Human Rights Commission. She is currently serving her 7th year as Commissioner for the Park Ridge Building and Zoning Commission and also serves on the board of the Park Ridge Juniors, a group made up of Park Ridge philanthropic women that raises funds for the not for profit organizations in Park Ridge. Aurora recently served a two year term as President of the Asian American Institute and was elected to the Board of Governors of the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Illinois. Aurora was a 2004 Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago. She served as a member of the Filipino American Voters League from 1996-98 and as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Chicago. From 2006- 2009, Aurora served on the Board of the Hubbard Street Dance of Chicago.

Aurora is a frequent speaker and lecturer and has spoken at various CLE conferences with the CBA, ISBA Real Estate Section, ISBA General Practice Section, ABA Real Property Section and ABA General Practice, Small and Solo Division. She was the key note speaker for the 2009 DePaul APALSA banquet dinner on the topic of “Affirmative Action-Are we There Yet?” She was featured in the “House Closing Repairs” article published in the July 1998 issue of the ABA Journal and the “Dream Home Nightmares” article published in the February 2004 issue of the ABA Journal. Aurora also authored “The New Federal Lead Based Paint Regulations,” which was published in the 1996 Dec/Jan issue of the DCBA Brief.

Aurora was named twice as one of 100 Women Making a Difference by Today's Chicago Woman. In May 2006, Aurora received the CBA Alliance for Women “Alta Mae Hulett” award, a prestigious award given to women lawyers who have significantly contributed to the advancement of women in the profession. In the same year, Aurora also received the 2006 Philippine Chamber of Commerce “Excellence in Law” award. In 2008. Aurora received the“Distinguished Service” Award from Cook County States Attorney, Richard Devine for her service as Chair of the Asian Advisory Council. On June 5, 2008, Aurora also received the ABA Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) “Legacy Justice Fund.” The CLEO award recognizes members of the legal community whose efforts and activities serve to advance the cause of diversity within the legal profession.

On April 18, 2009, Aurora was recognized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce as one of the “Ten Most Outstanding Filipino American Businessmen” and on April 22, 2009, Aurora was one of the recipients of the CBA “Vanguard Award” which honors individuals and institutions who have made the legal profession more reflective of the community and onNovember 21, 2010, Aurora received the Asian Chronicle USA “Distinguished Young Asian Professional.” Aurora served as the 2010 Asian American Coalition Event Chair which was hosted by the Filipino Community in January 2010 and attended by over 1,300 people. The Asian American Coalition is an organization comprising of all the Asian communities in Chicago which includes the Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Bangladesh, Pakistani, Thai, Laotians, Vietnamese, Indians, Malaysians, and Indonesians. In 2009, 2010 and in 2011, Aurora was recognized as a “Leading Lawyer” in the area of Real Estate Law and Consumer Law and was named Top 100 Women Consumer Law Attorneys. In July 2011, Aurora was named Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executive Leaders by Diversity MBA Magazine.

In February 2008, Aurora became the Democratic Nominee for Illinois State Representative, 65th District.

Aurora is fluent in Tagalog. She is married to Dr. Jerome Austriaco and they have 2 girls, Danielle and Isabelle.