Ara K. Ayvazian

Ara practices in product liability, business litigation and class action litigation. Ara has a comprehensive background that includes practicing in federal court in Florida and city, county, state and federal courts in New York.  

Before joining Shook, Ara was a judicial law clerk for more than five years in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, where he clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie S. Sneed and U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore. His accomplishments include managing a high-volume docket of civil and criminal cases; conducting legal research and drafting bench memoranda, orders and reports and recommendation on a variety of complex legal issues; and advising and providing support to the judges during hearings and trials.

Prior to clerking, Ara was a prosecutor at the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office. As part of his trial experience, Ara conducted jury and bench trials in New York State Supreme Court and New York State Criminal Court, including approximately 14 trials and 30 evidentiary hearings as first chair. In addition to trials, Ara presented more than 100 felony cases to grand juries. He then went on to be assistant corporate counsel in the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the New York City Law Department where he defended tort liability claims brought against the City of New York from case inception through trial. He also investigated allegations against the City to determine appropriate defense strategy, evaluated liability for settlement, drafted substantive and dispositive motions, and prepared cases for trial.

Ara earned his J.D., summa cum laude, from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in New York, where he was editor-in-chief of the Touro Law Review. While in law school, he won multiple CALI Awards and interned in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, followed by an internship with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) in Kaiserslautern, Germany. During his tenure in the JAG Corps, Ara worked on matters including federal tort claims, employment law, international law and environmental law. After receiving his undergraduate degree in business management from Ithaca College, Ara worked as a settlement analyst for a law firm where he conducted analysis and research directly affecting the ground zero mass tort involving more than 10,000 clients.