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Julia Belian

• J.D. Emory University '96
• M.Div. Yale University '93
• BA Southwestern University '80
• Curriculum Vitae

Associate Professor Julia Belian is a native Texan and a former journalist, which, when added to her experience practicing law, makes her a member of (at least) three of the most fun-to-hate cultural groups in America. Belian earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy cum laude in 1980 from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. After ten years as a copy editor and news editor at a mid-sized daily newspaper in West Texas, she completed a Master of Divinity degree at Yale University in 1993 and then earned her J.D., with distinction, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. At Emory, Belian was honored with the Clark Boardman Callaghan Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Law School and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She has practiced in both Minnesota (Faegre & Benson, LLP) and California (Morrison & Foerster, LLP), with most of her experience in the fields of estate planning and exempt organization law.

Prior to joining UDM in the fall of 2008, Belian was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 2006-2008. At UMKC, she was given the Tiera Farrow Faculty Award by the Association of Women Law Students and was also named Most Outstanding Professor by the Graduating Class of 2008. From 2002 to 2006, Belian was on the faculty at Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Nebraska.

Belian's scholarship focuses on property law, elder law, and the law of estates & trusts, which are also her primary teaching areas.