Julia B. Meister

JULIA B. MEISTER is a partner in Taft's Litigation, Health & Life Sciences, and Private Client practice groups and heads the firm's Cincinnati Estates, Trusts and Fiduciary Litigation practice. She counsels clients and represents them in business, commercial, estate, guardianship, trust, and fiduciary matters and professional ethics and discipline matters before courts, administrative tribunals, and arbitrators. Julia advises clients on a variety of health care issues, including privacy, statutory compliance, and decision making by health care surrogates. In addition, she represents clients in disciplinary proceedings and investigations before licensing boards and professional societies.

Julia is an elected fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”). She has been named 2015 Cincinnati Litigation - ERISA "Lawyer of the Year" and 2013 “Lawyer of the Year” Cincinnati Litigation - Trusts and Estates by Best Lawyers in America. She has been honored by Ohio Super Lawyers for Business Litigation (2012- 2016) and has been named one of the "Top 25 Cincinnati Women" by Ohio Super Lawyers 2015 and 2016. In addition, she is recognized by Best Lawyers in America in five practice areas: Commercial Litigation; Litigation - Banking & Finance; Litigation - ERISA; Litigation - Trusts & Estates; and Trusts and Estates. Julia has a rating of "AV" by Martindale-Hubbell. She was appointed to the Ohio State Bar Association's Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Section Council and serves on several committees of the Section Council. She has published numerous articles and is frequently invited to instruct on fiduciary and litigation topics at continuing legal education seminars. Julia chaired the OSBA's Pliskin Advanced Estate Planning Seminar and served on the Ohio Supreme Court's Summit on Aging Planning Committee, raising awareness of financial and other forms of elder abuse. She also serves as a “Settlement Week” Mediator for cases in the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio.

Julia was named one of the Cincinnati Business Courier's Forty Under Forty emerging leaders and has been recognized in multiple years by Cincinnati Magazine as an Ohio Super Lawyers Rising Star and by the YWCA Academy of Career Women of Achievement as a Rising Star. She is active in several legal and community organizations, currently serving as:

• Vice president, executive committee member and trustee of the Cincinnati Opera Association.
• Co-chair of the Ethics and Malpractice Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law.
• A member of the Legal Aid Society Board of Directors.
• A member (and past chair) of the Cincinnati Bar Association Admissions Committee.
• A member of the Cincinnati YWCA Racial Justice Committee.

Julia is also a past president of the Cincinnati Area Senior Services Board of Directors.

Julia graduated with honors from Xavier University in 1991 and the Notre Dame Law School in 1995. She served as an editor of the Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy and was awarded the A. Harold Weber award for Excellence in Legal Writing. She has worked in administration at the Notre Dame Law School and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton Law School.