Portrayed by {{{Actor}}}
Julia Braverman-Graham (portrayed by Erika Christensen) is the wife of Joel Graham and the mother of Sydney Graham and Victor Graham. She works as a lawyer.
She attended Stanford University. She is very competitive, both at work and at home.
Although she takes her job very seriously, she is very involved with her family and the raising of Sydney.
Julia is the youngest out of her siblings, but seemingly closest to her brother Crosby. She is intelligent and also caring.
In season 2, Julia and Joel decide to try to have another baby. They find out later that Julia has a condition where she is going to have trouble getting pregnant, so they turn to adoption.
In season 3, a girl at the coffee cart at Julia's firm is pregnant, and after having no success with adoption agencies, she jokingly asks Zoe if she can adopt her baby. Zoe tells her that she cannot, and Julia is absolutely embarassed. Zoe tells her that it is because she wants a closed adoption, but through the season, Julia becomes a maternal figure for Zoe. As a result, Zoe tells Julia that she can have her baby, but at the end of season 3, Zoe gives birth and decides to keep the baby, destroying Julia in the process. Julia and Joel then decide to seek other options. In the last minutes of season 3, the adoption agency brings a 9-year-old boy, Victor, to stay with Julia and Joel after his mother is incarcerated.
In season 4, Julia works on being a better mother to Victor, and consequently, her job suffers. She makes a huge mistake, and then quits after realizing that her focus is not going to be on her clients.
After the adoption of Victor, Julia and Joel are unsure how to parent him due to his behavior. Eventually, they decide to adopt him and the whole family joins them in the courthouse.
Towards the beginning of season 4, Julia quits her job to spend more time with her children. She finds this transition hard and bonds with a father from the children's school, Ed, who lost his job and is now a stay at home father.
As the season progresses Julia and Joel struggle within their marriage and she grows closer to Ed. Eventually she realizes that her friendship with Ed has turned into an emotional affair and goes to his house to end it.
When Julia is there, Ed kisses her. After a second she pulls away, saying that she is married. Soon she tells Joel.
He gets angry, asking her why he wasn't told immediately after it happened. Julia insists that she felt nothing on her end.
Joel continues to be cold to Julia and she suggests marriage counseling. Joel respons that the marriage isn't the problem: Julia is.
Joel decides to move out. The two go to a counselor to decide how to tell the children. When she asks whether it is a trial separation with hopes of reconciliation, Julia responds that it definitely is but Joel says he's not sure.
After he tells the children, they are devastated. When Joel leaves, the children complain that they are sick and need to call their father. Julia takes them to her parents house where Crosby and his family are staying.
Once the children are out of the room, she breaks down and admits to her parents that her marriage might be over.