Talin A. Hitik is the Executive Director of the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where she also supervises the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court team.  She most recently served as the Managing Attorney of Hitik Law, LLC, a boutique law firm specializing in private international law and transnational litigation, particularly in the implementation of the Hague Conventions. Her scholarship and work center on private and public international law, with a particular focus on international human rights law. Talin founded the Hitik Law Pro Bono Human Rights Program, which provides pro bono legal representation to historically marginalized and displaced communities, including indigenous Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. She has represented victim groups before United Nations human rights bodies and the United States Congress and has advised governments and non-governmental organizations on human rights advocacy, accountability for war crimes, and international investment arbitration. Previously, Talin was a Legal Officer at the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Talin has long been committed to advancing democratic governance and strengthening the rule of law in her ancestral homeland of Armenia. She served as an International Legal Expert to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, where she developed litigation strategy before the European Court of Human Rights and mentored the Ministry’s human rights lawyers. She also served as Executive Director of the Armenia Center for Dispute Resolution, a non-governmental organization focused on rule-of-law development, justice sector reform, and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in Armenia. 

Talin’s prior academic appointments in public international law include the American University of Armenia, Yerevan State University, and the University of Michigan Law School. Talin clerked in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for the Honorable Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.