About Sadaf F
Sadaf F Ahmed earned her J.D. from DePaul College of Law in 2020 after beginning her studies in 2018. She moved from classroom to clinic early in her legal training, taking on hands-on work that exposed her to real clients and courtroom practice. The law school period set the pace for a career split between litigation, research and client advocacy.
While at DePaul, Ahmed worked as a student lawyer in the Asylum Clinic in 2019. That placement put her on direct-service matters and immigration interviews. She also served as a research assistant to Professor John F. Decker that same year, helping with doctrinal and doctrinal-adjacent projects. Her time in the clinic and the research role offered two different perspectives: the immediacy of client representation and the discipline of legal scholarship.
In 2019 she secured a judicial externship to the Honorable Ronald F. Bartkowicz at the Circuit Court of Cook County. The externship gave her exposure to courtroom procedure and judicial decision-making. Those months on the bench informed how she later structured filings and prepared witnesses when she began work as an associate.
Ahmed entered private practice in 2021. She held associate positions at Jeelani Law Office, PLC and at the Law Offices of Cheng, Cho, & Yee during that year. Those roles involved case preparation, motion practice and client counseling across state and federal matters. The record of district admissions shows she appears in multiple federal courts and state jurisdictions, which reflects the geographic reach of the files she handled.
Her admitted jurisdictions include the Western District of Texas, the Southern District of Texas, the Western District of Michigan, the Central and Northern Districts of Illinois, the District of Colorado, the Federal District of Columbia and the State of Indiana. That list underscores a practice accustomed to multi-district filings and varied procedural rules. Colleagues describe her as methodical in litigation tasks and attentive when clients need plain explanations of complex processes.
Ahmed is now part of JEELANI LAW FIRM, PLC, which maintains offices in Detroit, New Jersey, New York, Chicago and Rolling Meadows. She brings courtroom experience from her externship, clinic advocacy and early associate work into daily practice. She currently practices across multiple federal and state jurisdictions, handling litigation and immigration-related matters.
