Kelly Lise Murray, J.D.
Instructor in Law
Kelly Lise Murray teaches legal writing and continuing professional education. She also serves as the lead investigator/faculty for the National Family Court Project on Housing and Financial Justice. This project highlights the critical intersection of law and financial well-being – often exacerbated by the divorce process – to increase access to justice for divorcing spouses by fostering informed financial decisions through housing, financial, and joint debt literacy in family court.
Professor Murray led a Plenary Session on divorce real estate at the American Bar Association Family Law Section’s April 2010 meeting in New Orleans and taught a five-hour workshop for the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals national forum October 2010 in Washington, D.C. She co-founded DivorceThisHouse.com in 2008 and has developed curriculum and trained nationally hundreds of family judges as well as real estate, financial, legal professionals and divorcing homeowners about property valuation and other property-related issues that arise in divorce settlements. She currently serves on the Education Advisory Committee of the Tennessee Access to Justice Commission, and she is a member of the Faculty Advisory Council for the Vanderbilt Institute of Digital Learning (VIDL).
Professor Murray graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford and cum laude from Harvard Law School. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois. Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty as a legal writing instructor in 2005 and co-founding DivorceThisHouse.com, she practiced commercial litigation in Chicago for six years.
Research Interests
Housing and financial justice in family court, including insurability and joint debt literacy; real property valuation, disposition, and division per dissolution (marital/non-marital)
Representative Publications
- Reforming Real Property Due Diligence: An Interdisciplinary Guide for Family Professionals Regarding House Valuation and Disposition (American Bar Association – Family Law Section Publishing, forthcoming 2016)
Education
J.D. Harvard Law School, cum laude
A.B. Stanford University, Phi Beta Kappa