U.S. District Judge Pamela L. Reeves will become the chief judge of the Eastern District of Tennessee on April 1, succeeding U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, who has held the chief judgeship for the past seven years. Reeves is the first woman to hold a district judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee and becomes the first woman to hold the district’s chief judge position in the court’s 222-year history.
She was nominated to her judgeship in 2013 by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 2014. She was sworn in by Varlan on March 10, 2014, and he will administer the oath of office for chief judge to her at 9:30 a.m. Monday, April 1, at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Federal Courthouse.
Reeves graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee in 1976 and received her Juris Doctor degree from the UT College of Law in 1979. She practiced law in Knoxville until her appointment. She served as the first female president of the Tennessee Bar Association (from 1998 to 1999), is a Master of the American Inns of Court and is past president of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators.
Reeves and Varlan are two of the four active district judges currently serving the Eastern District of Tennessee. The others are Judge Harry S. Mattice and Judge Travis McDonough, Chattanooga. Four district judges serve the district in senior status, a semiretirement position. They are Judges Leon Jordan and Thomas W. Phillips, Knoxville; Judge Curtis L. Collier, Chattanooga; and Judge J. Ronnie Greer, Greeneville.
The Eastern District of Tennessee is the largest federal district in Tennessee, composed of 41 counties in East and parts of Middle Tennessee, serving 2.5 million people, with courthouses in Knoxville, Greeneville, Chattanooga and Winchester. In addition to its eight active and senior district judges, there are five magistrate judges and four bankruptcy judges serving the district.