Board of Directors

Sheila Paylan is an expert in international law, human rights and gender, as well as a war crimes investigator and former legal advisor to the United Nations. She spent more than 15 years advising the judges and senior officials of various UN-backed international criminal tribunals, including for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. From 2019 to 2021, she was appointed by the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights as the Legal Advisor and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Specialist to a Team of International Experts mandated to assist the judicial and military authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo with investigating and prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and gross human rights violations.

Sheila holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Psychology, a Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.), and a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from McGill University, as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) specializing in Public International Law from the University of London. She has published extensively on the subjects of international justice, remedial secession, and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), including in Newsweek, Foreign Policy, Opinio Juris, EJIL: Talk! and EVN Report. Now based in Yerevan, she regularly consults for a variety of international organizations, NGOs, think tanks, and governments.

Shahane A. Martirosyan leads the Labor and Employment department at Stephan Filip PC. Ms. Martirosyan represents individual employees in negotiation and litigation in a variety of employment matters including sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, family leave, and wage claims, among others. Ms. Martirosyan also represents low wage employees in class action matters. Ms. Martirosyan employs an extremely client-centered approach to her practice and incorporates each client’s unique circumstances and goals to tailor strategies that work best for each individual. 

Ms. Martirosyan has obtained three seven figure trial verdicts. In 2018, Ms. Martirosyan gave the closing argument to the fifth largest verdict in California in a whistleblower action against Federal Express Corporation. In 2016, Ms. Martirosyan successfully served as second chair in a disability discrimination trial against Albertson’s. In 2016, Ms. Martirosyan also second chaired a “rare beast” – a class action trial – which resulted in a verdict on all counts against the largest plastics manufacturing company in Northern America.

Ms. Martirosyan is a member of CELA, CAALA, and ABA where she works on the Annual Tech Symposium for the  Labor and Employment Symposium. 

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Martirosyan worked exclusively at plaintiff-side employment and civil rights law firms in California. Ms. Martirosyan received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and her J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of the Law.

Lara K. Zohrabian is a senior appellate court attorney at the Second District Court of Appeal of the State of California, under the direction of Division Eight’s Presiding Justice Maria E. Stratton. Ms. Zohrabian’s time at the Court of Appeal has afforded her with exposure to dozens of areas of substantive law.  

Previously, Ms. Zohrabian practiced family law exclusively. During this time, she represented people from all walks of life, from high net-worth individuals to wage earners and career professionals and empowered them to navigate through the difficult experience of a divorce with dignity.

Ms. Zohrabian is admitted to the practice of law in California and before the United States District Court for the Central District of California. She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, where she was the recipient of “The Outstanding Brief” award during her first year, and a staff writer and articles editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review during her second and third years, respectively. She also served as secretary, and later, vice president of the Armenian Law Students Association and was a founding member of the Armenian Alumni Chapter of Loyola Law School.

Ms. Zohrabian received a B.A. in Classics and Minor in Armenian Language and History Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she graduated cum laude.  During this time, she was the editor-in-chief of the Armenian Chronicles publication, served on the executive board of the Armenian Students Association, and was an active member of Sigma Alpha Lambda.

Gayane Khechoomian is an attorney licensed in California and Illinois. She is a consultant at the United Nations and investigates matters of unlawful discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault under U.S. civil rights laws. As a practicing attorney, Ms. Khechoomian counseled foreign entities and non-governmental organizations and litigated under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Alien Tort Statute in U.S. federal courts.

Ms. Khechoomian’s international experience includes serving as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in the Hague and clerking at the United Nations criminal tribunal prosecuting genocide and crimes against humanity in Cambodia. She also has experience in civil litigation and at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles.

Ms. Khechoomian graduated from Loyola Law School with a concentration in international law. She has over a decade of journalism under her belt as a copy editor at Yerevan Magazine and co-founder of the Armenian Chronicles publication based out of UCLA, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree and taught journalism part-time.

Elina Avakian is Associate General Counsel at Snap Inc. in Los Angeles, CA. She is a commercial attorney on the Platforms & Technology team and works on a broad range of transactions supporting Snap’s technology, products, partnerships, and monetization work, among others. Prior to joining Snap, Elina practiced law in Dublin, Ireland and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In addition to ArmenianWBA, Elina sits on the Attorney Wellness Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel and leads Snap’s Law in Tech Diversity Collaborative efforts.

Elina received her B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and her J.D. with a Business Law Specialization from UCLA School of Law. Elina is passionate about supporting women in law and technology, furthering DEI across all professions, and focusing on attorney wellness and minimizing burnout in the legal profession.