Naris Khalatian '89

Naris Khalatian earned her B.A. in French Language and Literature from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1986. She went on to obtain her Juris Doctor from Southwestern Law School in 1989.

With over three decades of legal experience, Professor Khalatian has served as a civil litigator, appellate counsel, transactional attorney, and arbitrator. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of civil matters, from personal injury cases to complex business litigation, in both state and federal courts. She is admitted to practice before the State Bar of California, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

From 2019 to 2024, she served as a judge pro tem in the traffic division of the Los Angeles Superior Court. On July 1, 2022, she was appointed by the California State Controller to a four-year term as a probate referee for the Los Angeles Superior Court. In this role, she serves as a subordinate judicial officer.

Professor Khalatian currently serves as in-house counsel for Frazier Capital Valuation, an appraisal and brokerage firm with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In her business law practice, she advises both small and large companies on regulatory compliance. She is also a dedicated pro bono attorney for several nonprofit organizations.

A committed member of the legal community, she is the past chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Delegation to the Conference of California Bar Associations (CCBA) and currently serves on the Delegation’s Executive Board. She is deeply passionate about the legislative process and is driven by a belief in improving the legal system—one statute at a time. Her personal motto is: "Leave the world a little better than we found it."

Professor Khalatian serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Health Care Rights, a non-profit Medicare advocacy organization based in Los Angeles. She is also vice-president of the Southern Division of the California Probate Referees Association. Her past leadership roles include chairing the parish council of St. Gregory Armenian Catholic Church in Glendale and the Advisory Board of the Armenian Sisters’ Academy in Montrose.

Fluent in Armenian (both Eastern and Western dialects), Farsi, French, and Spanish, she also has conversational proficiency in Italian.

Her hobbies include helping others, traveling, practicing Ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arranging), and reading about nutrition. She is married and the proud mother of two adult daughters.