Before becoming a lawyer, Curtis spent seven years as an air traffic controller. Air traffic controllers direct the movement of aircraft to keep them safely separated, a demanding technical occupation that differs considerably from legal practice.
His career therefore followed a path from aviation work into higher education and then into law. He entered legal education after this period and later built his practice in Massachusetts, where he remained based.
Curtis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, where he studied political science. Brown was founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It is a member of the Ivy League and was the first American institution to admit students regardless of their religious affiliation.
He then attended the University of Chicago Law School, receiving a Juris Doctor degree in 1984. The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 in Chicago, Illinois, and its law school became one of the best-known legal education programs in the United States.
Curtis was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1985, the year after completing his law degree.
Before joining the firm that became Chin & Curtis, Curtis was an attorney at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston. The firm was founded in 1865 in Boston by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray. It began mainly with individual clients and Harvard University, then shifted toward corporate law in the late nineteenth century. At Ropes & Gray, Curtis specialized in business immigration matters, labor and employment, and employment litigation.
Curtis later became a founding partner of Chin & Curtis, LLP. The practice was established by Francis Chin in 1986 and took the name Chin & Curtis in 2000. The firm has described itself as Boston's largest independent immigration law firm, focusing principally on corporate and business immigration while also advising clients on naturalization, family-based immigration, humanitarian relief, and deportation. Curtis now serves as co-managing partner, having guided the firm for several years.
His practice covers family-based immigration, naturalization, worksite compliance, and federal and state litigation. He has represented businesses ranging from multinational public companies to startups, as well as nonprofit organizations including private secondary schools and large research institutions. He is also a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education conferences sponsored by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and the Boston Bar Association.
