Faculty Profile: Margaret Behm

Margaret L. Behm has earned a reputation as the go-to person in 45 years of representing clients and forging coalitions for change.
After beginning her legal career in 1976 at Legal Services of Middle Tennessee, Inc., Behm and Marietta Shipley in 1980 founded Shipley and Behm, the city’s first all-woman law firm. “Back then, women just weren’t taken seriously as business owners or lawyers,” Behm says. “I wanted to run my own business and demonstrate that women could not only run a law firm, but also be good lawyers.”

Today, Behm’s practice concentrates on business law, employment, municipal law, estate planning, and commercial litigation. Behm also serves as general counsel for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, for which she also serves as Board Secretary since 2003.