She spent her legal career as a public defender before being nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011.

[3][4] Beckwith grew up in Michigan, where she attended public schools in Grand Rapids and received a B.A.

She then clerked for Judge Richard Dickson Cudahy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court before beginning a career in appellate public defense in Michigan and then, beginning in 1999, at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

On March 31, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Beckwith to serve as an associate judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals.

[6] On November 18, 2011, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination by voice vote.