In 2025, Michelle Behnke ’83, JD’88 was inaugurated as the president of the American Bar Association — the same year that another presidential inauguration occurred and deepened America’s sense of political polarization.
“I don’t even want to say we’re somewhat polarized,” Behnke says. “These are very polarized times.”
Polarization wasn’t what Behnke expected to deal with when she was elected, but she notes, “you don’t get the year you plan.” Before her election, she had hoped to spend her presidency celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday. Since taking office, she’s had to focus on the role lawyers play in America’s judicial system.
“I have been talking about the rule of law and why it matters,” she says, “and how lawyers can educate their community about that.”
Behnke believes that the training lawyers receive gives them a distinct ability to deal with an increasingly polarized society — to give people something deeper than hot takes and social media posts.
“Our job is to explain and have more fulsome discussions as opposed to sound bites,” she says. “We should be in our communities, trying to facilitate conversations and help people figure out how they can find good information. We should help people listen carefully and have discussions in a civil manner.”
Behnke entered law school knowing just one thing: she didn’t want to spend a lot of time arguing in court.
“I actually had absolutely no interest in litigation at all,” she says, “criminal or otherwise.” Many of her friends and acquaintances didn’t understand this. They wanted her to be a champion, especially for disadvantaged defendants.
“People within my own community were suggesting that I could really make a difference if I were to pursue criminal prosecution, that that would give people a view of somebody that looked like them, [someone who] could influence the way in which prosecutions were brought,” she says. “And that seemed important to me, but I didn’t feel any passion for it.”
Criminal law is as much about holding the legal system accountable and making sure that it operates the way it’s supposed to. Behnke understood why that was important, but the question of a defendant’s actual guilt or innocence weighed heavily on her. Instead, she was attracted to business law.
“My practice focused on commercial real estate and estate planning,” she says. “I enjoyed, frankly, being a lawyer in the times when someone actually wanted to work with a lawyer — to start a business, buy a business, sell a business, pass a business to the next generation. In many other places — divorce, criminal or civil litigation — people just don’t want to be there at all.”
That attitude toward lawyering helped shape her views for how attorneys can help in today’s fraught society.
“I’ve really been focused on trying to remind lawyers about the role we can play in our communities and how we can help people have good discussions,” she says. “We’re used to arguing either side of a point, whatever that point is. So we don’t take offense because somebody views it a little bit differently.”
