Julie Ratliff

Julie is a member of Taft’s Employment and Labor Relations, Litigation, and Appellate practice groups. She represents clients in a wide variety of complex legal disputes in all stages of litigation in state and federal courts. Julie routinely advises clients on strategies to minimize exposure, including counseling on employment decisions such as hiring, discipline, and firing of employees, as well as on the implementation and modification of employment policies.

Julie has successfully represented employers against claims of wage and hour violations, discrimination, and other disputes. She has successfully litigated and counseled on matters involving non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, trade secrets theft, unfair competition, and data privacy and information security.

Before joining Taft, Julie was a staff law clerk with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where she worked directly with every Seventh Circuit judge who was on the bench from 2019 to 2022. Prior to law school, Julie worked in numerous departments for Teach for America.

Julie earned her J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, graduating magna cum laude and in the top 10% of her class. She earned her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from DePauw University. While in law school, Julie was a legal extern for the Hon. Mark Massa and Chief Justice Loretta Rush, Indiana Supreme Court. She earned certificates in Employment Discrimination, Trial Advocacy, Constitutional Law II, and Contract and Sales, and she was the senior managing editor for the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality.

Julie is admitted in Indiana, and her admission in Illinois is pending.

• Speaker, “Illinois’ Alphabet Soup of Privacy Protections: BIPA, GINA and PIPA and What They Mean for Your Business in 2024,” Association of Corporate Counsel, Chicago Chapter CLE Presentation (Feb. 22, 2024)