Faculty Profile: Julia Tate-Keith

Julia Tate-Keith has been focusing on family formation since her law studies at Vanderbilt University School of Law. In Law School, she researched and wrote about the use of artificial insemination to form families. After law school, Julia worked with Judge William Frank Crawford on the Tennessee Court of Appeals and with Justice Martha Craig Daughtrey on the Tennessee Supreme Court.
While working with Justice Daughtrey, Julia worked on the Court’s opinion in a ground-breaking opinion addressing the disposition of frozen embryos, Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588 (Tenn. 1992).  Her greatest claim to fame is that a line which she drafted for that opinion was used in a script for an LA Law episode!

In her private practice, Julia continues to help families. She handled the appeal which resulted in the ground-breaking opinion in Nale v. Robertson 871 S.W.2d674 (1994) which protects the parental rights of fathers. As a member of the American Bar Association, she served on the Family Law Section’s Task Force on Reproductive and Genetic Technologies, writing articles, monographs, and drafting model legislation. As a fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys she collaborates with other attorneys to provide the highest level of service to people building families.  She has spoken in many settings, including bar association meetings and at a joint meeting of the ABA Family Law Section and the American Psychological Association where she advocated that lawyers and psychologists work together to protect the families formed by gay and lesbian parents.  
Julia also holds a masters degree in social work and has maintained a psychotherapy practice. She brings these skills to service with her law clients, providing an exceptional understanding of psychodynamics of individuals and families.

Julia lives in Murfreesboro where she serves her community through her practice and through volunteer activities including founding and leading Rainbow Rutherford, a group for the LGBTQI community and its allies. 

In her current practice, she works with families and colleagues around the globe to form families and to craft legal environments which foster the formation of families.
Profession and Volunteer Activities.

Founder and Board of Directors – Rainbow Rutherford 2015-2021
Fellow – Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys 2013 - 2021
Fellow – New Orleans Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center, 2010 – 2013
Red Cross, Disaster Mental Health Worker (volunteer), Nashville Area Chapter, 2001- 2008