About Julie

Julie L. Kessler grew up in Hawaii and California. Her memoir, Fifty-Fifty, follows her exploration of family ties in Israel and Europe (including those with her elusive father), her discovery of the language, food, and magic of France, her encounters with Hill Tribe women in the mountainous countryside of northern Vietnam – and her chance encounter with the son of a conman whose path she’d unwittingly crossed before....

Julie graduated with a B.A. in political science from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and received her Juris Doctor degree from The  George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She has traveled to 107 countries, has lived in Japan and in France, and spent significant periods of time in Israel, Hong Kong and Indonesia. After 25 years practicing as a transactional lawyer, Julie now spends most of her time, when not writing legal commentary for various publications, pursuing good food, good wine, and interesting people as a travel journalist. For several years she had her own column, "The Traveling Life" in The San Francisco Examiner and her travel articles have also regularly appeared in The L.A. Times, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser,  The Vancouver Courier, The Asia Times, Westways Magazine, The Jerusalem Post, MoneyInc, Avid Cruiser, Insider Travel Report, The Jewish Journal and Travel & Leisure. She has been a guest several times on the Frommer's Travel Show as well as The American Forces Network Radio. Julie also writes about luxury cars for Money Inc. When not circumnavigating the globe or driving fast cars, Julie can be found enjoying her family and crazy canine not far from an airport in California.