Judge Robert Benham 140 Adams Avenue, Room 120 Memphis, TN 38103 901-545-4044

Judge Robert Benham has served on the bench of Probate Court since 1997, after a 34-year career as an attorney.

Long active in community affairs, Judge Benham served on the Board of Commissioners of the Memphis Light, Gas and Water division from 1983 to 1990, including five years as Chairman; member of the downtown Memphis Kiwanis Club; former member of the Memphis Rotary Club; founding Director of Riverview-Kansas Community and Day Care Center; former President of the Tennessee Foster Grandparents Association; Board member of the Arthritis Foundation; President of the Memphis Junior Chamber of Commerce when that organization originated the Special Olympics and Big Brothers in Memphis, and hosted the first cultural exchange between the U.S. and China.

Judge Benham, whose undergraduate and law degrees were earned at Vanderbilt University, was widely known while in private practice as a speaker and instructor on wills, trusts, estates and financial planning. Today he continues to give presentations to lawyers and to the Tennessee Judicial Conference.

He has been a member of the American, Tennessee, Memphis and Shelby County Bar Association, the Estate Planning Council of Memphis, and the Leo Bearman, Sr. Chapter of the American Inn of Court. He is also a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

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Judge Karen D. Webster 140 Adams Avenue, Room 129 Memphis, TN 38103 901-545-4045

Judge Karen D. Webster was elected to the Shelby County Probate Bench in August 2006. Although new to the bench, she has more than 15 years litigation experience that began in 1985, where she served as an Assistant City Attorney-City Prosecutor for seven years under Judges Larry Potter, Nancy B. Sorak, Kay S. Robilio, Earnestine H. Dorse, Sarah Kyle and Walter L. Evans to name a few. After being promoted to the Chief Prosecutor Position, Judge Webster served another seven years as a litigator, handling dockets of approximately 400 cases daily. During these periods, Judge Webster was also employed part-time at the University of Memphis (Memphis State University) as an Academic Support Instructor, at the Internal Revenue Service as a Business Tax Auditor and as an Affiliate Broker at a local Realty agency.

As a means to broaden her legal repertoire, Judge Webster later served as an Assistant County Attorney-Assistant Contract Administrator for Shelby County Government beginning in 2000, where she provided the services of a Transactional Attorney for three years. Most recently, Judge Webster was in the private practice of law handling family law, small claims, probate, and juvenile cases and real estate closings.

Judge Webster is a native Memphian having attended Lauderdale Elementary (Walker Elementary), Longview Jr. High, and South Side High Schools. After attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (B.A. 1981) and the University of Tennessee College of Law at Knoxville (J.D. 1985), Judge Webster immediately returned home to fulfill one of her primary goals: To make an investment in the people of the City of Memphis and Shelby County. Although she has always been a public servant, Judge Webster's present position is an instrumental means to accomplish this goal.

Known for her exceptional patience and keen sense of fairness, for her aptitude to learn all aspects of the system in which she is employed, and for her determination to get the job done right; Judge Webster has been regarded as the "go to" person among her superiors, colleagues, and those she supervised.

Judge Webster has been married for 19 years and is the mother of two children.

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