Anoush Baghdassarian

Anoush has criminal and civil litigation experience, including representing and advocating for, victims of atrocity crimes and terrorism domestically and internationally.

Her experience includes working at the International Criminal Court and litigating before the International Court of Justice, United Nations treaty bodies, regional courts, foreign national courts, and U.S. domestic courts. Anoush has also led teams on the ground in conflict zones, investigating, gathering evidence, and conducting interviews to support case development.

Anoush’s domestic criminal prosecution experience has focused primarily on counterterrorism cases, as has her U.S. civil litigation practice, with an additional focus on corporate accountability and foreign sovereign cases. She also has notable trial experience, having prosecuted jury trials and argued motions in misdemeanor cases.  

Before joining the firm, Anoush clerked for the Hon. Joseph F. Bianco of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Anoush also founded and runs a non-profit focusing on justice efforts for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. 

Anoush’s experiences includes:

• Prosecuting jury trials (first and second chair), arguing arraignments and motions, engaging in plea discussions, and preparing trial witnesses as a student prosecutor at the District Attorney’s Office
• Advocating for victims of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court
• Representing victims of war crimes and genocide before the International Court of Justice
• Coordinating urgent investigations of open-source material, alongside on the ground testimonial and physical evidence collection, in conflict zones; simultaneously leading legal teams in case-building and advocacy report-writing efforts
• Assisting in counterterrorism prosecutions for the Department of Justice
• Conducting mediations as a licensed mediator
• Conducting hundreds of investigative interviews

Revisiting Actus Reus: A Survey of Aiding and Abetting Convictions in International Criminal Law, Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (Fall 2023)

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Goes to Court, Lawfare (June 2023)

Provisional Measures at the ICJ in the Cases of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Lawfare (April 2023)

Syrian Accountability Litigation Guide (January 2023)

The Legal Significance of U.S. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Harvard International Law Journal (May 2022)

Co-author, Special Immigrant Visas for the United States' Afghan Allies: Lessons Learned from Promises Kept and Broken, Lawfare (August 2021) 

Co-author, Is Social Media Complicit in War Crimes Against Armenians?, Law.com ( February 2021) 

Co-author, Voices from Afrin: First-hand Accounts of Turkish Crimes Against the Kurds and Policy Proposals From Those Affected, Yale Journal of International Affairs (Spring 2021)

Co-author, Surviving the Forgotten Genocide: An Armenian Memoir (2020)

Congressional Recognition of the Armenian Genocide – 104 years of Denial, Harvard Human Rights Journal (2019)

No Choice but to Flee, the Forced Deportation and Persecution of the Armenian Population of Nagorno-Karabakh (April 2025)

Speaker, Documenting Past and Present Atrocities, Duke Law School (September 2025)

Speaker, How to Prosecute Genocide, Princeton University (November 2024)

Speaker, Forced Exodus: Displacement and Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians, Columbia Law School (October 2024)

Speaker, One Year Post Exodus: Looking Toward Accountability and Justice for Armenians Ethnically Cleansed, Harvard Law School (October 2024)

Speaker, Human Rights Law Committee Webinar: Accountability for Nagorno Karabakh, International Bar Association (April 2024)

Speaker, Int’l Criminal Justice Committee: Webinar on the ICC and Nagorno Karabakh, Barcelona Bar Association (November 2023, in Spanish)

Speaker, International Criminal Accountability Mechanisms, Center for Truth and Justice Second Annual Conference, Yerevan, Armenia (May 2023)

Speaker, The Adjudication of Environmental Crimes from the European Perspective and the Relevance for the International Criminal Court, Conference on the Research and Investigation of International Criminal Law regarding the Environment (October 2022, in Spanish)

Speaker, The Significance of the U.S. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Inaugural Latin American Conference on U.S. Studies (September 2022, in Spanish)

Speaker, Quasi-legal Advocacy Strategies in Human Rights, Center for Truth & Justice Inaugural Global Conference, Yerevan, Armenia (June 2022)