Attorney Profiles

Emily J. Curray - Managing Partner
Emily J. Curray completed her law degree at the University of Colorado and has been practicing immigration law since 1996. She represents clients in all areas of business immigration, helping employers and their employees obtain proper temporary visa status and permanent residence. She also advises clients in complying with I-9 rules and other complex immigration laws. Emily represents a wide variety of employers, including multinational corporations, universities, research institutions, small businesses and entrepreneurial investors. Prior to earning her law degree, Emily earned an M.S. in Nutrition Science, which is an asset to Stern & Curray in representing universities, research institutions, biotech firms and individual scientists. While her practice primarily focuses on business immigration, she also handles family immigration matters.

Emily has been selected repeatedly by her peers for inclusion in The The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of immigration.
She holds the highest AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been deemed a Super Lawyer® in her field for the last few years.
Emily is Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Colorado Lawyers Committee.
She has been active in the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), having served on the National Liaison Committee to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Headquarters, the National Committee on Family Immigration and the National Committee on Ethics and Practice Management.
She has also served as Chair of the Colorado Chapter of AILA.
She has worked on immigration legislation matters, lectured widely on immigration topics, and served as an editor for the AILA 2010 Publication, Giving You The Edge in Immigration Law Practice.
Emily is a member of the Board of Directors of the New America School and of The Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
She is a member of AILA, the Colorado Bar Association and the Denver Bar Association.

Emily is fluent in Spanish and has lived in Peru and Mexico. When she is not assisting employers and individuals navigate the complex U.S. immigration laws, she is likely to be found skiing, cycling or hiking in Colorado’s mountains.

Kenneth H. Stern - Partner
Kenneth H. Stern received his law degree from the University of Denver in 1978 and has practiced immigration law since that time. Ken’s practice encompasses all areas of immigration law including business and family immigration law, investor visas, and global migration services. Ken works closely with HR Professionals and Corporate Counsel to help their companies develop a strategic vision for using immigration visas as a way to attract and retain the best talent from around the world. He also helps companies develop effective and efficient internal practices and policies in the area of immigration law.

He is a past chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Colorado Chapter, and has chaired or served on many national committees.
Ken is the founder and chair of the Committee for Balanced Legal Careers, a committee of the Colorado Bar Association.
Ken argued the case of Colorado v. Nunez before the United States Supreme Court, and the case of People v. Pozo before the Colorado Supreme Court.
In 1993, he received the AILA Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for excellence in immigration litigation.
In 2002, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Colorado Chapter of AILA and in 2005 was named Best of the Bar in Immigration Law by the Denver Business Journal.
Ken has also been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in the field of immigration for over twenty years, and has been selected for inclusion in Colorado Super Lawyers–in every year that it has been in existence. He was the only immigration lawyer named in the Top 50 Lawyers in Colorado, 2007 Colorado Super Lawyers.
In addition, Ken has been cited in Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers for several years.
Ken is admitted to the bar in Colorado; the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado; the U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit; and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits.
Ken is a member of the Colorado Bar Association, the Denver Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has lectured extensively at seminars throughout the United States. He has also authored many articles in the field of immigration law.
Presentation and seminar topics have included: How Globalism is Impacting Immigration Law, What Corporations Can do to Maximize their Global Human Capital, and The Future of Immigration Reform.

Maya W. Wilbourn - Senior Associate Attorney
Maya W. Wilbourn received her law degree from the University of Colorado in 2004 and has practiced immigration law since that time. She assists employers obtain temporary visas and permanent residency for immigrant workers in a wide range of vocations, including scientists and engineers. Maya leads Stern & Curray’s I-9 compliance practice. In this capacity, she trains employers in proper I-9 completion and storage and represents employers whose I-9s are audited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In addition to practicing all aspects of business immigration, Maya helps individual immigrants with family based immigration, citizenship, U visas, asylum and Violence Against Women Act cases.

Maya has successfully represented clients before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Administrative Appeals Office and the U.S. Department of Labor. She has lectured on various immigration topics, was published in The Colorado Lawyer, and served as an Associate Editor for an American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) conference handbook.

Previously, Maya worked as an immigration attorney for Chandler Law Firm, LLC and Mountain States Employers Council, Inc. While in law school, she worked for the Colorado State Public Defender. She has a B.A. in Spanish and a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Oregon, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude in 2001.

Maya is admitted to the bar in Colorado and the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. She is a member of AILA, the Colorado Bar Association and the Denver Bar Association. She volunteers for Lawline on Channel 9 News, the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), Ya Es Hora Citizenship Drives, Legal Nights at Mi Casa and the Immigration Task Force of the Colorado Lawyers Committee.

She speaks Spanish, has lived in Spain, and has traveled to Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Emily Assunta White – Associate Attorney
Emily Assunta White is a graduate of the University of Denver, College of Law. While at the University of Denver, Emily also earned a Masters in Social Work with a focus in public policy. During her education, she gained experience working with detained non-citizens at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Center (RMIAN). After graduation, Emily joined the Joseph Law Firm, P.C., where she developed her skills in family based immigration and removal defense litigation.

Emily is admitted to the bar in Colorado, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. Emily has successfully represented clients before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Executive Office for Immigration Review and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Emily has addressed local and national audiences and published on advanced topics in immigration litigation.

Emily is the chair of the Office of Chief Counsel Liaison Committee and is vice-chair of the Enforcement and Removal Operations Liaison Committee for the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). She is also on the national AILA U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Committee. Emily serves as mentor attorney for the RMIAN pro bono program. Emily participates in Ya Es Hora Citizenship Drives and Legal Nights at Mi Casa and El Centro San Juan Diego.

She speaks Spanish and has traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Tunisia, Egypt, and Israel.

Matthew Shaftel – Associate Attorney
Matthew Shaftel completed his law degree at the University of California, Hastings College of Law, located in San Francisco, CA in 2004. He was admitted to the California Bar that same year and was admitted to the Colorado bar in 2011. Because of his diverse background, Matthew handles cases across the immigration spectrum.

Matthew obtained undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University in 1997. Before beginning his legal career, he worked as an Equity Research Associate for Credit Suisse First Boston, in charge of covering Latin American beverage companies. Matthew also served as the Director of Business Development for an internet startup in Silicon Valley.

After law school, Matthew worked as a Federal Public Defender in San Diego, CA for several years. As a federal public defender, half of his caseload was dedicated to defending clients charged with illegal entry after deportation. To effectively defend these clients, it was essential to analyze their prior deportation proceedings. Matthew has tried ten federal felony cases, two state cases, and written numerous appellate briefs to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has achieved several notable victories both at the trial and appellate level.

Matthew is fluent in Spanish; he lived in Chile for a year, and has travelled extensively through South and Central America and Spain. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Matthew moved to Colorado in 2011 to return to the mountains. When not practicing immigration law, he is climbing, mountain biking, or skiing in the beautiful Rockies.

Danielle Danaher – Associate Attorney
Danielle is a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School. During her second year of law school, she accepted a law clerk position with Stern & Curray and continued working in this capacity until graduation, gaining valuable research experience in all areas of immigration law. Upon admittance to the Colorado bar, Danielle joined the firm as an Associate Attorney. Her practice currently focuses on business and family based immigration, and she also has a special interest in refugee and asylum law.

Before attending law school, Danielle graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame. Danielle spent a semester studying in Angers, France and after graduation was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the French Ministry of Education to teach English to secondary-school students. She taught for seven months in a technical high school in Vienne, France where the student body was largely composed of North African immigrants.

Danielle was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and immigrated to the United States as a child with her family. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 2006 and is proud to hold dual citizenship. Her personal immigration experience gives her unique insight into the immigration process from the client's perspective. She is fascinated by world travel and has visited Mexico, France, England, Italy, Greece, and Egypt.