Law Offices of Cheryl L. S. Sarna

Hello! My name is Cheryl L. Sarna, Esq. I am a real estate attorney serving the Southwest suburbs of Chicago for over 25 years. Over the years, I have had offices in Evergreen Park, Burr Ridge and Palos Heights. Over the years I have helped thousands of people, businesses and families by providing services in the fields of Estate Planning, Tax, Real Estate, Probate and more. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

A second-generation Italian, I was born to Dr. Louis and Nina Scaramella in Chicago's South Side. My father joined the Armed Forces as a physician, so I spent my childhood moving back and forth from Chicago's Beverly neighborhood to places like San Antonio, Texas and Macon, georgia. Midway through elementary school, we remained relatively stationary in Beverly. I attended high school at Mother of Sorrows, where I later taught and served as dean of discipline, and after, attended Loyola University Chicago for college, where I studied English and Philosophy, and met my ex-husband Richard Sarna, also an attorney. Upon graduating, I realized my passion was (and always has been) teaching - which is perhaps the reason behind creating this blog. After 11 years teaching at Mother of Sorrows in Blue Island, Il, and after the birth of my second child - my son, R.J. - I decided to pursue law school. I graduated with my J.D. from Kent Law School.

My practice has always been very customer-oriented. Everybody wants a piece of the American Dream, and a large part of that dream is home ownership. More importantly than that are the measures we take to protect that dream and make it available for our children. That is why solid estate planning and having a well-crafted will are key: we want to be able to pass what we've worked so hard for to our children, to give them a piece of what we earned and to help them get a better life than the generation before. Unfortunately in these uncertain and downright depressing economic times, the American Dream is in peril. Some people in the blogosphere question and challenge if the American Dream as we know it is already dead and in need of reinvention before it can be resuscitated. I know that every month, we read more and more people are losing their homes. We read foreclosure percentages have increased 300% or some such awful, mind-numbing, stomach-dropping statistic, year-by-year. The housing bubble years of 2000-2007 gave a lot of hope to a lot of people; it seemed the American Dream had turbocharged engines. When the bubble crashed, so did the faith people had in that dream.

It looks like all hope is lost. It looks like it's the end of an era. This is because a lack of hope and more importantly, a lack of knowledge. I hope that this blog allows me to disseminate some information that gives hope - or at least makes people aware - of some options. Thank you for reading. I love your feedback - don't feel afraid to leave comments! And most of all, my best wishes go out to all of you.