Raffi Melkonian is an appellate partner at the Houston law firm of Wright, Close & Barger LLP. He litigates state and federal appeals around the United States. In 2019, he argued and prevailed in a Title VII case in the Supreme Court of the United States, Fort Bend v. Davis, and has argued cases in numerous state supreme courts around the country. Melkonian also has an active social media presence on both Twitter and Bluesky, and is credited with starting the popular #AppellateTwitter community. He is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard Law School, and was a law clerk to Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Vice Chancellor Stephen P. Lamb of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
He is a member of the Garlard R. Walker American Inn of Court and has been a columnist for The Bencher since November 2021.