About Vanessa Petrossian

Vanessa Petrossian is a legal operations and litigation support professional serving attorneys across civil, family, estate, special education, real estate, small business, and criminal practice, and the founder of Pro Se Advisory Services LLC, an independent legal document preparation and business advisory practice. As Director of Operations & Client Advisory at a boutique law firm in Rockland County, NY, she manages a full caseload of active matters — from complex state and federal subpoena and motion drafting, filing, and serving to a mastery of e-discovery that has made her sought after when attorneys have voluminous discovery. For Vanessa, the more complex and challenging the discovery is, the more tenacious and successful she is. She is a compliance powerhouse, bringing the same rigor and organizational command she built over two decades of executive-level leadership to the organization she represents and the attorneys she supports, and actively redlines and drafts voluminous Policy and Procedure manuals for non-profits and private-sector clients.

Vanessa's path to law was anything but conventional. She spent the first half of her career managing multimillion-dollar marketing budgets for national brands including Revlon, Samsung, and the U.S. Postal Service, and leading high-profile hospitality and event operations, before moving into nonprofit and public-sector leadership. As Senior Program Director and Director of Operations for Cornell Cooperative Extension, she led teams of up to twenty, managed budgets ranging from $10,000 to more than $5 million, and secured over $3 million in new grant funding — work that included directing the region's emergency food-access response during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and building the Hudson Valley Catskills Welcome Center and Taste NY programs from the ground up. Without a budget, she accomplished what others had not been able to over almost a decade, single-handedly launching shoptasteny.com at the governor's request during the height of the pandemic.

That operational discipline now drives her legal work. Vanessa has spent more than 18 months providing intensive discovery and case-development support on an active homicide matter, turning large, disorganized productions into indexed, chronologically ordered case material. She drafts subpoenas, FOIL requests, and motion-practice materials — MPP motions and Sur Replies — conducts legal research, and is known for spotting not just what has been produced in discovery, but what is conspicuously missing. She takes case law and argues with discipline and accuracy, which she credits to the mentorship she has received. She and the defense team won a dismissal based on strong arguments for impaired grand jury proceedings, and civil counsel for her clients asked her to join their team once the criminal matter was resolved — a non-negotiable for the clients.

She is equally recognized for her advocacy work. Vanessa is a trained and certified mediator (40-hour training including NY Part 146) pursuing placement on the 9th Judicial District court roster, and a commissioned New York Notary Public. She is a determined advocate in special education and OPWDD systems — work shaped in part by her own family's experience — and has drafted proposed New York State legislation to strengthen parents' enforcement rights under Education Law § 4404. She has long supported survivors of domestic violence through advisory board service, legislative drafting, and lobbying efforts for policy change, and has been invited by heads of state to consult on legislation, meeting one-on-one, as a roundtable participant, and to speak at press events, fundraisers, and give testimony to the legislature.

Vanessa holds a Master of Arts in Economics & Community Development and a Graduate Certificate in Community Advocacy, and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. She was honored with the Community Champion Award from Catholic Charities in 2020 for her leadership addressing food insecurity during the pandemic, and was awarded a scholarship by Cornell to pursue her Master's.

Vanessa lives in Rockland County, New York, where she continues to build Pro Se Advisory Services LLC alongside her work supporting attorneys on their most demanding matters.