KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Jill E. McCook is East Tennessee's newest federal magistrate judge.
McCook was sworn in Monday in a private ceremony at the federal courthouse in Knoxville. She succeeds Bruce Guyton, a U.S. magistrate judge in Knoxville since 2003 who has now retired.
The magistrate formerly clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Varlan in Knoxville. She most recently was for four years an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville. Before that, she was an attorney with the Baker, Donelson firm.
A magistrate's job entails helping district court judges, handling many aspects of federal proceedings such as criminal first appearances and the issuance of warrants.
McCook got her law degree from Washington and Lee University in Virginia and her bachelor's degree from Emory & Henry College in Virginia.
McCook was named to be a magistrate judge last summer.
