“Success is one baby step at a time; it’s not a sprint,” says Margaret Wong, managing partner of Margaret W. Wong and Assoc. Co. LPA, a nationally and internationally recognized immigration law firm on Chester Avenue in Cleveland.
“You focus on end results. … You visualize what you want as the bottom line when you’re negotiating, and then you work backwards to give everybody a win-win situation.”
As a young adult, Wong left her native Hong Kong in 1969 to come to the United States. She earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biology at Northern Illinois University and attended law school at the State University of New York at Buffalo. After graduation, she worked at a small law firm until she was ready to establish her own practice in 1979.
Since then, Wong has been honored with numerous awards from local ethnic, corporate and social communities for her immigration law work and as a community activist.
“Immigration work under our present administration is getting increasingly difficult,” she says. ” … Things are changing rapidly and globally with outsourcing of jobs.”
When Wong established her firm, there were very few attorneys practicing immigration law in Northeast Ohio; now, there are several firms and individuals specializing in that field in the Greater Cleveland area alone. Wong works with her staff to differentiate her firm from the others.
“We’re trying to work harder on our brand globally, and we’re opening offices in Detroit and Columbus,” Wong says. “And we’re trying to recruit the best lawyers we can find who speak foreign languages, because the world is getting smaller and everybody needs to speak a foreign language.” How to reach: Margaret W. Wong & Assoc. Co LPA, (216) 566-9908 or www.imwong.com
