Margaret L. Behm
Managing Partner at Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, P.C.
Co-Chair, Nashville Organizing Committee for the NCAA Women’s Final Four
“Change doesn’t have to come from the powerful. Change came from the grassroots not top down.”
“Do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. It will make you stand out.”
Music City Girls Lead! graduates of three different academies benefited from the wisdom of one of the program’s co-founders, Margaret L. Behm, who has earned a reputation as the go-to person in 40 years of representing clients and forging coalitions for change.
She used her early successes in high school and college, advocating for change to improve the lives of girls and women, to inspire advocacy and action in the MCGL! graduates.
In 1980 Behm co-founded the city’s first all-woman law firm. Annually recognized as one of the country’s most outstanding lawyers, she also is known for her service to the legal profession and matters involving access to justice. Her commitment to women and girls, particularly in sports, politics, and law has been recognized over decades of community service.
She is an inductee into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame, an honor given to women who have made outstanding, unique and lasting contributions to the economic, political, and cultural well-being of Tennessee. Behm’s advocacy has been lauded locally and nationally: the prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, given nationally to only five lawyers a year by the American Bar Association; the John C. Tune Public Service Award, the highest honor given by the Nashville Bar Association; the YWCA Women of Achievement Award; the Athena Award; the CABLE Promote Women Award and The Lawyers’ Association for Women’s Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey Award for her achievements in and service to the legal profession, especially in the areas of promoting women. Tennessee State University named her one of its Women of Merit and Legend.
She has been a key advisor to numerous political candidates and is particularly known for her encouragement of, and support for, women candidates.
She co-chaired with Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors the city’s successful effort to host the Women’s Final Four in 2014. She is a longtime board and executive committee member of the Nashville Sports Council and was the founder and chair of its Women in Sports Committee. Behm has served on the board and executive committee of the YWCA and been involved with scouting as a Girl Scout leader and member of the board and executive committee of Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, Inc.