Our Practice

Partner & Attorney

A graduate from Whittier Law School, Curtis Morrison is an expert in the nexus of immigration law and federal litigation. He is licensed to practice law by the State Bar of California, and the District of Columbia Bar. He is also admitted to practice before the Central District of California, Northern District of California, Eastern District of California; District Court for the District of Columbia ,  US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 

Partner & Attorney

Rafael Urena is a partner in the New York office of Morrison Urena, LC. Mr. Urena has a long history of vigorously advocating for his clients on important matters.  

Mr. Urena has represented clients in federal and state courts in a wide spectrum of cases. He has argued on a multitude of complex civil, constitutional, criminal, and immigration matters. He has persuaded courts to award some of the largest preservation of visas in history and successfully upended hundreds of the government’s attempts to deport noncitizens. In 2020 and 2021, Mr. Urena successfully secured a preservation of visas for over 15,000 diversity visa applicants.  

Mr. Urena is a frequent commentator on legal issues. He has been featured in Once-In-A-Lifetime U.S. Visas to Be Lost Unless Court Intervenes, Forbes Magazine, Afghan visa lottery winners ‘hopeless’ to leave Afghanistan, Los Angeles Times, US State Dept. Ordered to Issue 9K More Diversity Visas, Law360, and Fifteen People Successfully Beat Trump's Travel Ban In Court - Gothamist, Gothamis

Associate Attorney 

Prior to joining the firm, Jana worked as In-House Counsel at the Office of Legal Affairs at The Ohio State University. Her practice focused on Title IX, Student Issues, Sexual Assault and Public Safety. 

Jana received a BA in International Studies with a double minor in International Relations & Foreign Diplomacy and Arabic from The Ohio State University in 2013, and a JD from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2017. While at Ohio State, Jana was the Managing Editor of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, placed 1st in the 2017 ABA Mediation Moot Court Competition, and was recognized as a Public Service Fellow with Dean's Special Recognition. 

Jana is an active member of her community and serves as a Board Member and Founder of the Columbus Fashion Council.

Associate Attorney   

Alex George is licensed to practice law in Illinois, but can serve immigrants from all over the world as immigration law is federal. She received her Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2019, where she completed the Legal Innovation and Technology Certificate program. Alex was a member of Chicago-Kent’s Immigration Law Moot Court team, and an Associate editor of the Chicago-Kent Journal of International and Comparative Law. During law school, Alex was proud to volunteer with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, where she supported women and children seeking asylum in the United States.

Prior to joining the firm, Alex worked at a private immigration firm, where she concentrated on employment-based applications for immigrants with extraordinary abilities. She also has experience with family-based immigration and naturalization. Alex earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from DePaul University. She concentrated her research in Urban Studies and Community Activism in Latin America and the Middle East, writing her thesis on media representation of Honduran women and children seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Alex has a working knowledge of Spanish. 

Associate Attorney 

Zhao “Chuck” Guo, Esq., an Associate Attorney with Morrison Urena LC in Austin Texas, is licensed in the State of New York and the U.S. District Court in Central District of Illinois. With a narrow focus on the fields of mandamus litigation and business- and employment-based non-immigration and immigration, he has zealously and successfully represented numerous clients in H-1B, P-3, L-1, E-2, O-1, EB-1, NIW, and other immigration cases.

Sailed from Northern China, Mr. Guo has been braising in U.S. law. He received his Master of Laws degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to working for this law firm, he worked for the Law Offices of Deacon Zhang, P.C. in the Irvine Office. Mr. Guo also interned in a full-practice firm in central Illinois and externed with the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois. His areas of interests are Immigration Law, Business Associations, Constitutional Law, and Economic Analysis of Law. He is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), the American Immigration Lawyer Association (AILA), etc. Prior to coming to the U.S., he worked as a Corporate Finance Client Manager at China CITIC Bank Shijiazhuang Branch.

Mr. Guo is passionate about legal research and writing. He runs a WeChat Subscriber (ID: ChuckGuoLawyer) and a Zhihu Column. He has been also perfecting his public speaking skills, as he is running a YouTube channel (ID: Chuck Guo Esq). Mr. Guo loves challenges. He is detail-oriented and self-motivated.

Associate Attorney

Carolina assists the Morrison Urena team with representing clients from all over the world in their immigration law matters. She received her Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2019 and her dual-Bachelor’s from the University of Miami in South Florida where her fiercely supportive family lives. She was a dedicated student who was heavily involved in her extracurriculars, including the Trial Advocacy Team, where she was a Captain and National Finalist; and the Immigration Law Society and their volunteer advocacy at a women and children’s detention center. For her commitment throughout law school, she was inducted into the Bar & Gavel Society of her graduating class. Prior to joining Morrison Urena, Carolina worked for both the private and public sector, from national broadcasting networks to legal aid clinics assisting victims of domestic violence and asylees seeking refuge. As a native Spanish speaker with a background in the creative arts and telecommunication industries, Carolina employs a diverse skillset in her work. She is grateful to work with clients from all walks of life, including students, families, and other extraordinary individuals from musicians and athletes, to scientists and entrepreneurs. Carolina is proud to be a part of this team and looks forward to creating long-lasting, meaningful impact for our clients 

 Law Clerk

Prior to joining the firm, Banan worked at a private immigration firm handling an array of cases ranging from family-based immigration, employment immigration, immigration delays, and removals. With a special focus on PP9645 cases, she has helped to reunite dozens of families- including children separated from their parents, families affected by the Proclamation, as well as many clients with non-immigrant visa applications. 

Banan received her BA from the University of Cincinnati in 2012 triple majoring in Sociology, Criminology, and Arabic Language and Literature. After graduation, she obtained her TEFL certificate to teach English in Peru until 2013.

In 2016, she earned her JD from Ohio Northern University Law School. She continued at Ohio Northern University where she received her LLM in International Law in May 2017, through the Democratic Governance and Rule of Law Program. 

Banan previously worked as a Law Clerk for CAIR-Columbus assisting the legal department with civil rights cases, employment discrimination, and immigration delay litigation. Banan is fluent in Arabic. 

Operations Manager

Amir started off as friends with Curtis on Twitter and helped him with his digital needs. He learned quickly and began handling many administrative tasks which developed his role as Assistant to Curtis, as well as assisting Farsi speaking clients. He moved to Iran in 2015 to launch a startup. When Trump ripped up the Iran deal, it threw the economy into shambles, including his venture. While there, he met his soul mate. Now, due to the Muslim ban, he's unable to go back home while he awaits his wife's visa. He is in the same boat as most of Mr Morrison's clients, so it is personal. Every single visa he is helping get for a plaintiff feels as good as if he obtained his wife's. Amir has been an asset to the team, helping a one-man operation scale into signing up nearly 3,000 plaintiffs (in three DV cases) in the span of 90 days. 

Fun fact: Amir owns over 100 pairs of happy socks and his favorite is the avocado print! :)

 Chief Financial Officer

Sonya is the oldest of Curtis' 3 younger sisters. She's worked on and off with her brother since 1996 so joining his Legal team in 2020 was a natural transition. She joined to help on the landmark Kennedy vs Trump case and proved she could be utilized in multiple areas. She has a passion for animal causes as well as human and has volunteered in animal rescue more than 10 years. She currently lives and works in Kentucky but has lived all over the US, relocating with previous employers.  

Senior Paralegal

 Senior ParalegalJovan is a DV2020 winner who benefited from the decision in Gomez and got a visa in September, that he couldn't use because of PP10014. Since then, he was fighting for its removal on Twitter and on his news website "The Worldwide Times". That's how he met Curtis and joined the team when he moved to the US after the proclamation was reclined.In other news - Jovan has been in the media in Macedonia for more than 15 years, with his own late night TV show, columns in newspapers, and a news website that he ran. He has experience in journalism, writing, public relation, marketing, ad sales, data analytics and a little bit of web development/programming. Now, as Senior paralegal, he is overseeing the growing team of paralegals working on different cases, helping people from all around the world achieve their U.S. immigrant dreams.  

Paralegal

Gulnaz Magauiyeva has earned Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Education, majoring in Linguistics, German and English languages from Kazakh State University of International Relations and World Languages. After relocating to the United States, she graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University, Fermanian business school earning her MBA degree in 2013. Gulnaz worked for the Honorary Consulate of Austria and then the Consulate of Sweden.  

Paralegal

Prior to joining the firm, Florian was a DV2015 selectee, so he experienced firsthand the process to become a permanent resident in the USA. Ever since, he has supported Diversity Visa selectees to be successful in their immigration visa process. Florian has a Bachelor Degree in Social Sciences (Major in Sociology) from University of Tirana in Albania and has previous experience in Corporate Real Estate Management industry. He is a brand new Floridan (after being a Big Apple resident for 6 years) and is really enjoying what the Sunshine State has to offer, including the latest Indoor Sky-Diving experience. Florian is fluent is Albanian and Italian. 

Paralegal

Gladis has over 10 years of experience working with family-based and immigration court cases. Since both of her parents are attorneys, Gladis chose her path in immigration law too, when in 2007 she started handling her own immigration case. Gladis is a native Spanish-speaker; prior to working in the Morrison Urena firm, she was working for a non-profit organization and private immigration law offices.