Senate panel advances nomination of Genesee County judge to serve on federal bench

Washington — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced to the full Senate the nomination of Genesee County Circuit Judge Frances Kay Behm to serve on the federal bench in Michigan's Eastern District.

All Democrats on the committee voted for Behm, plus Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The vote to advance the nomination was 12-10, with no senators commenting on their votes in support or in opposition to Behm during the committee meeting. 

Prior to her time on the bench, Behm spent 15 years in private practice focused mostly on business litigation and probate law, including time with two firms — Winegarden, Haley, Lindholm & Robertson in Flint from 1997 to 2008 and at Braun Kendrick Finbeiner in Saginaw from 1994 to 1997.

Behm was nominated by President Joe Biden in late June. During her July hearing before the panel, Republican senators trained most of their questions on two circuit appeals court nominees who appeared prior to Behm. 

Behm was introduced to the committee over the summer by Michigan Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Lansing and Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, both Democrats. 

Stabenow told the senators that Behm and her four siblings grew up on a dairy farm in the rural mid-Michigan community of Alma, milking cows, baling hay and driving tractors but that the 1980s farm crisis caused her parents to nearly lose the farm.

"That experience changed Judge Behm forever. It led her to pursue degrees in business and law, so that she could help other Michigan families," Stabenow said at the time.

Behm graduated from Albion College in 1991 and got her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1994. 

On the Genesee County bench, she has conducted over 1,600 bench trials and three jury trials while assigned to the Family Division, and another 16 bench trials and 18 jury trials when assigned to the civil/criminal and business court, according to a questionnaire she submitted to the committee.

Behm also sits on the boards of the Michigan Probate Judges Association, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flint and Genesee County.

Her husband, attorney Michael J. Behm, is a regent for the University of Michigan.