Rebecca McKelvey Castañeda

Rebecca McKelvey Castañeda is a Member of the firm in the Nashville and Franklin offices. She works exclusively in the practice known as Family Law with an emphasis in international family law, especially parental child abductions from country to country. She has significant experience with cases brought under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act. The United States has signed this particular Hague treaty along with about 73 other countries. You can find out more about this law and how it applies, by clicking here. Rebecca’s published work on the Hague Convention, An Overview of the International Parental Child Abduction Provisions of the Hague Convention, 7 ANKARA L. REV. 1, 65 (2010), is available upon request. Rebecca and her team have much experience in Hague Convention litigation and can help your family navigate these difficult international issues.

In addition to her international family law work, Rebecca also represents clients in Tennessee family law. Her practice includes many years of experience representing clients who must face divorce. Rebecca and her team can handle intellectual property matters in divorce. She helps clients with a variety of issues related to families, children, custody, grandparents and other family members, divorces, prenuptial agreements, and family relocations. Rebecca serves on the editorial committee of the Tennessee Bar Association that updates the Tennessee Alimony Benchbook each year.

With offices in Nashville and Williamson County, Rebecca is easily accessible.

Representative Experience

• After a person’s divorce, there are often subsequent matters for which someone needs advice from a Family Law attorney, and Rebecca assists clients with those matters.
• She represents couples adopting children, both locally and internationally, including re-adoptions and adult adoptions.
• She represented a party in one of the few grandparent visitation cases to be decided by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Lovlace v. Copley, 418 S.W.3d 1 (Tenn. 2013).
• She advises parents who are relocating for work or a spouse’s job, or parents who are considering moving or whose child’s other parent is considering moving to be with a loved one.
• She provides consultations and full representation – all the way through trial – for parents involved in cases under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and International Child Abduction Remedies Act.
• In her Hague Convention practice, among other cases, she has assisted a parent in Sweden to be restored custody of his son, and she has represented a father in having his son returned to his home in Turkey.

Recent News, Articles & Speaking Engagements

• "I absolutely believe in love," Marriage, divorce rates down in Tennessee, by Adam Mintzer, WKRN.com, February 14, 2023
• 40 Under 40: Rebecca Castaneda, Stites & Harbison PLLC, Nashville Business Journal, April 9, 2020
• Family Law 101, Law Practice 101: Family Law, Power of Attorneys, and Wills 101, October 1, 2019, with Ashley N. Goins
• Where Family Law and International Issues Collide, Tennessee Attorney's Memo CLE, Nashville, October 2018Interpreters Communicate When You Can't, presenter, ABA Family Law Section Spring Meeting, Nashville, May 2018Family Law Basics, presenter, Nashville Bar Association, Nashville, February 2017 and 2018

More Than Stites & Harbison

Rebecca is past-chair of the board of directors for the Tennessee Justice Center, served as a member of Belmont University Alumni Board of Directors (past president), and has been a member of the Belmont University College of Law American Inn of Court. She now serves on the Board of Trustees for Belmont University. Rebecca was awarded the Tennessee Bar Association's Harris Gilbert Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year Award (2015). In June 2011, she was chosen as a 2011 Nashville's Top 30 Under 30 by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. In addition to being involved in her church, Rebecca and her husband enjoy reading, travelling, the Nashville Symphony, riding bikes, and snowboarding. Rebecca participated in the FBI Citizens Academy.