Founding Partner
Licensed in California and Hawaii
[email protected]
For nearly a decade, Raffi practiced in the Los Angeles office of Reed Smith LLP, one of the largest global law firms in the world. As Counsel, Raffi’s practice focused on commercial and business disputes as well as financial services litigation, where he represented small, mid size and Fortune 100 companies, including manufacturers and distributors in the paper, toy, and garment industries, as well as hotel chains, tech start ups, banks, mortgage servicers, medical device companies, among others.
Raffi litigates single plaintiff and class action commercial litigation cases, including those relating to breach of contract and fiduciary duty, real estate, business torts, negligence, fraud, unfair competition, among other claims.
Raffi has represented many of the nation’s largest financial institutions and loan and mortgage servicers in over 2,000 wrongful foreclosure and unfair business practices cases in state, federal and bankruptcy court brought in multiple jurisdictions, including California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Montana. His experience involves litigating claims relating to fraud during loan origination; improper denial of a loan modification; violations of California’s Homeowner Bill of Rights; Truth In Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act (RESPA).
Raffi also represented financial institutions in over 1,000 cases relating to violations of various state consumer protection statutes, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA); and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). He also has experience litigating against governmental entities, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), in the payday lending space. Through his substantial experience, Raffi has successfully leveraged favorable settlements for both high and low exposure cases.
Raffi received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, a top 15 national law school. He received the California Excellence for the Future Award (CALI) in both his Real Property and Criminal Law courses, which is given to the highest scoring (A+) student in each law school class. He is admitted to practice in California, Hawaii and all of their federal district courts.
In addition to practicing law, Raffi holds an active California Real Estate Broker’s License.
Outside the day-to-day practice, Raffi is a faculty member in the UCLA Department of Communication where he lectures students about the First Amendment and educates them on various free speech issues, including, defamation, right of publicity, political speech, among other areas.
He has published various op ed pieces in newspapers and journals on First Amendment and financial industry issues and has interviewed and offered legal commentary on NBC Los Angeles, ABC7 and the Los Angeles Times.
Raffi is active within the Armenian American community and, for nearly 10 years, has served as a board member with the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR), the largest Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the United States. Raffi is also a recipient of the “20 Rising Stars Under 40” award given by the Armenian Bar Association (ABA), recognizing Raffi as someone who has distinguished himself in his profession and who has made a meaningful impact on his community.
In addition to his volunteer work in the Armenian American community, Raffi is also a Director with the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s (LACBA) Counsel for Justice, an organization committed to improving the administration of justice and helping deliver legal services to the most vulnerable in the community.