Ara Astourian is a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he has experience in high-stakes commercial litigation and a developing interest in white-collar criminal defense and investigations. His practice has covered complex disputes involving technology, retail, and cultural institutions, and he has litigated claims of defamation, breach of contract, copyright infringement, and negligence, in both federal and state courts. He has experience drafting dispositive motions, leading fact investigations, interviewing clients and client employees, second-chairing offensive and defensive depositions, and managing fact discovery.

Ara helped Wilson Sonsini win summary judgment for OpenAI in first-of-its-kind litigation alleging defamation by ChatGPT, OpenAI’s generative AI tool, by spearheading the litigation team’s preparation for all key depositions and preparing the initial draft of OpenAI’s summary judgment brief. He also served on a trial team that helped obtain a complete victory for a large public technology company after the company was sued by its former CEO for $100 million in damages. Additionally, Ara has represented entities such as Google and Fashion Nova, helping them secure favorable results in high-stakes commercial disputes.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Ara served as a law clerk to the Honorable Holly A. Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable André Birotte Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Ara holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California, where he specialized in political philosophy and wrote a dissertation defending a Rawlsian view of public reason.