Julia Tate-Keith, Esq.
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.
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. 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 advocates that lawyers and psychologists work together to protect the families formed by gay and lesbian parents. Julia is a member of Edgehill United Methodist Church, and volunteers there and in other settings in her community.
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.
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
Fellow – New Orleans Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center, 2010 – 2013
Red Cross, Disaster Mental Health Worker (volunteer), Nashville Area Chapter, 2001- 2008
Member – American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 2008 – 2012! !Pastor-Parrish Relations Committee, Brookemeade Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 2008 – 2011
Quoted in Procedure an Option for Those Who Plan, can Pay $100k-plus Cindy Wolff, Commercial Appeal, November 22, 2009
Legal Advisory Council Member for American Fertility Association, 2009 – 2011
Invited Consultant to American Bar Association and National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws meeting for drafting of Uniform Law on Assisted Reproductive Technology, Memphis, Tennessee, October 11-13, 2007
Board of Directors, Member and Secretary/Treasurer for One In Teen Youth Services, 1998 – 2011, an agency providing services for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth.! !Board of Directors, Member, Nashville Psychotherapy Institute, 19999 – 2003.
Served on membership committee with focus on Internet services and as Editor of Psychobits Membership Newsletter.! !Executive Member of ABA Family Law Section Committee on the Laws of Reproduction and Genetic Technology (ABA Section of Family Law), 1990 -1998.
Board of Directors, National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (now known as National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Bar Association, 1997- 1998.
Committee Member – Nashville Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division, Elder Law Project, 1992 – 1993.
Committee Member – Nashville Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division, Pro Bono AIDS Project, 1992 – 1993.
Co-Chair, Legislative Committee, Tennessee Lawyers Association for Women, 1994 – 1995.
Co-Counsel with ACLU attorney, Louise Melling, in Federal suit on parental notification before minors’ access to abortion – 1993
Steering Committee Member, Lavender Law; The Second National Conference on Lesbian and Gay Legal Issues, Atlanta, October 1990.
Author
Monograph entitled Artificial Insemination and Legal Reality, American Bar Association, 1992; an extensive survey and critique of the nation’s statutory and common law on artificial insemination, including fifty state survey.
(Call no.KF3830, T37 1992, ISBN: 0897077946)
Monograph entitled Surrogacy: What Progress since Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah, American Bar Association, 1994; a survey and critique of the law of surrogacy including fifty state survey
Material for Annual Meeting compendium Surrogacy since Skoloff and Baby M., American Bar Association 1993.
Article for American Fertility Association website Surrogacy Agreement Talking Points: An Attorney’s thoughts on Negotiating Your Surrogacy Agreement, November 2009 http://www.theafa.org/library/article/surrogacy_agreement_talking_points_an_Attorneys_thoughtson_negotiating_you/
Presenter
Nashville Psychotherapy Institute, Psychotherapy with Sexual Minorities, March 7, 2003.
Co-Presenter: Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Conference: The Truth About Our Clients, a Diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder: What’s next in the Death Penalty Case, March 2001.
Invited Co-Presenter with Charlotte Patterson, Ph.D., at Joint Meeting of American Bar Association Family Law Section and American Psychological Association, Children, Divorced and Custody: Lawyers and Psychologists Woking Together, April 1997.
Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association Orlando, Florida – Second Parent Adoptions, Protecting the Best Interests of Children in Gay ad Lesbian Homes, August 3, 1996
Annual Conference of Administrators of Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, Sponsored by the American Public Welfare Association, Lexington, Kentucky, Protection of Rights of Birth-Parents, May 1, 1995
From Affirmation to Advocacy – Conference on Gay and Lesbian Youth , Nashville, Tennessee, Legal Aspects of Working with Gay and Lesbian Youth, September 23, 1994
Annual Meeting American Bar Association, New York City, Update for Family Law Section Members on the law of surrogate parenting, Surrogacy since Skoloff and Baby M., August 1993