Melissa is a founding partner of Wray Willis LLP. Melissa’s practice focuses on representation of policyholders in first-party residential and commercial property damage disputes and life insurance cases.

Melissa has been practicing law for more than 25 years. Melissa routinely serves as lead counsel in appeals of jury verdicts and dispositive motions, interlocutory appeals, and original proceedings. She is also frequently called on by colleagues in the plaintiffs’ first-party insurance bar to consult on and assist with appellate issues. Melissa has presented oral argument to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court, and many of the Texas intermediate courts of appeal.

Although she primarily handles briefing and argument of appeals, dispositive motions, and complex legal issues, Melissa still enjoys trial work. In 2021, she was on a trial team that secured a verdict of almost $120 million in the trial of a life insurance case in Jefferson County, Texas. The verdict was the largest in the nation that year in an insurance suit.

Prior to co-founding Wray Willis LLP in 2023, Melissa was a shareholder in a respected Houston first-party insurance boutique firm, where she managed the firm’s appellate practice. As a young lawyer, Melissa worked for two large international law firms and a respected boutique firm where she handled a variety of litigation and appellate matters including complex commercial disputes, civil rights cases, and personal injury suits. 

Melissa graduated from Baylor University in 1994 with a degree in French. She graduated cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center in 1998, where she was an Articles Editor of the Houston Law Review, a member of Order of the Barristers, a member of the Honor Court, and a Constitutional Law teaching assistant. She also had a very successful career as a competitor in state and national mock trial tournaments throughout all three years of law school.

Melissa’s involvement with student trial advocacy - which dates back to high school in the 1980s - has continued throughout her 25 years of practice. She has served as a coach for high school, undergraduate, and law school mock trial teams; directed high school and law school mock trial tournaments; chaired the high school mock trial program committee for a local bar association; and judged too many competitions to count. Since 2021, she has taught and coached the mock trial team at the high school she attended. In both 2023 and 2024, the team won its regional tournament and advanced to the state tournament, where it placed 7th overall in 2024.

In her spare time, Melissa is an avid tennis player, runner, traveler, and sports fan. She is married and has three grown children.