Episode 10: December 2021 – An Immigrant’s Story of Servant Leadership with Margaret Wong

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GuestMargaret Wong

TitleFounder & Managing Partner, Margaret W. Wong & Associates, LLC

TopicAn Immigrant's Story of Servant Leadership

HostCengiz Karatas

About Our Guest

Margaret W. Wong, an award-winning practicing immigration lawyer, born in Hong Kong, is founder and managing partner of Margaret W. Wong & Associates, LLC, with offices in nine cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, and Raleigh. Margaret W. Wong is celebrating her fortieth year and the beginning of her fifth decade in immigration and nationality law, and legal practice management

Author of the book The Immigrant’s Way, which is available in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish; on Kindle and in paperback, and with more than 40,000 copies in print, Margaret Wong built her immigration law firm from one desk and no secretary to a nationally recognized force with offices in nine cities and over 60 employees.

Adjunct professor of immigration law at Case Western Reserve University Law School, Margaret Wong is also a National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) Trailblazer, was listed in US News & World Reports’ Best Lawyers, enjoys a “Preeminent AV” rating by Martindale Hubbell, and was appointed by The Ohio Supreme Court as charter member of the Continuing Legal Education Commission for Attorneys.

She is life member of the Federal US 6th Circuit, 8th Judicial Ohio District, is a board member of the State of New York at Buffalo Foundation and the Law School Board, her alma mater, board member of the Cleveland State University Foundation, and of the Tri-C Foundation Board; and is a life member of the Ohio State Bar Foundation and the Federal Bar Association. She sits on Senator Sherrod Brown’s Ad Hoc Committee on Selecting US Marshals and US Attorneys in the Southern District of Ohio. She has helped hundreds and thousands of foreign born obtain their Green Cards and US citizenship, and fight deportation. She is past President of the Federal Bar Association Northern District of Ohio.

For decades, Margaret Wong has helped employers obtain work permits for their executives and has assisted thousands of people in coming to the United States to become permanent residents, advance their educations, work, and pursue opportunities. Her clients come from every country around the world, from every walk of life, and range from governmental and corporate to ordinary people. The law firm’s talented team handles every kind of immigration problem; its staff is multilingual, with proficiency in languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Spanish, Russian and Albanian. Executives and large law firms seek her help when they have tough immigration problems. She is known for speed, quality, honesty and persistence.

She has won numerous awards, including two for philanthropy – the Margaret Ireland Award from the Cleveland Women’s City Club and the 1997 Creative Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Community Foundation. Crain’s Cleveland Business has named her to their “Women of Influence” list and Cleveland Magazine has included her with its “Most Interesting People.” Margaret Wong also received the highly coveted Ellis Island Medal of Honor in May 1998 for her outstanding achievements and contributions to the multicultural fabric of the United States. She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Other honors and awards include an Outstanding Alumni Award from State University of New York at Buffalo, Kent State University’s Social Responsibility Award, and the Leadership Award from the United Black Fund. Her work has also earned her recognition in books such as Profiles of Ohio Women 1803-2003 and People: Cleveland’s Most Valuable Resource, Millennium Edition. Margaret is also an Urban League Board Member and VP.

Margaret Wong is a civic leader who educates and inspires others. While she was serving as the first Asian-American president of the Cleveland Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, the Cleveland chapter won the coveted Chapter Activity Award. She has presented numerous seminars on immigration and naturalization law for bar associations and the public.

Committed to giving something back to the community and to mentoring young professionals, Ms. Wong has volunteered her time and expertise on boards of diverse organizations, including Notre Dame College, Cuyahoga Community College Foundation, Northeast Ohio Commission on Higher Education, Cleveland Bar Foundation, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Asian Bar Association, Town Hall, University Hospitals Health System, St. Vincent Hospital Health Care System, United Way Services, and the Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University Law School Advisory Boards. Ms. Wong is also a life member of both the Eighth Judicial District Court and the Federal Sixth Circuit Court.

Ms. Wong is admitted for practice in Ohio, New York, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina.