After receiving and reviewing the report of the Merit Selection Panel, Chief Judge Thomas E. Johnston is pleased to announce that the court has selected Judge Joseph K. Reeder for appointment as the new United States Magistrate Judge at Huntington, West Virginia. An order of appointment will be forthcoming pending receipt of the required background reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Judge Reeder will be appointed to an eight-year term in the Southern District of West Virginia and will fill the vacancy that will be created by the retirement of Magistrate Judge Cheryl Eifert.
Judge Reeder currently serves as a state circuit court judge for the Twenty-Ninth Judicial Circuit in Putnam County, West Virginia. He was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Judge Reeder is a graduate of the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics (Accounting) in 1987. He received his legal education at the West Virginia University College of Law. Judge Reeder graduated from law school with honors, as a member of the Order of the Coif, in May 1991. While in law school, he was active in the Lugar Trial Association and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity.
Following law school, Judge Reeder practiced law as an associate and then partner in several Charleston law firms. In 2003, he founded his own firm in Hurricane, West Virginia, where he practiced until his election to the circuit court bench in November 2012. He was re-elected in 2016 and 2024. He is one of six state circuit court judges who serve as a Member of the Business Court Division.
As a state circuit court judge, he was particularly concerned with drug abuse issues and their effect on the community. He started the Putnam County Adult Drug Court and has been the presiding judge in that court since it was founded. In 2023, he founded the Putnam County Family Treatment Court. As a lawyer, Judge Reeder tried numerous cases and represented both individual and business clients in state and federal courts throughout West Virginia. He is a member of the American Bar Association Judicial Division and a member of All-Rise (formerly the National Association of Drug Court Professionals).
Judge Reeder is a member of the Pine Grove Church of Christ and the Scott Teays Lions Club. He regularly speaks to new lawyers at the West Virginia State Bar’s Bridge the Gap seminar. In 2024 Judge Reeder was named “Mentor of the Year” by the West Virginia State Bar Young Lawyers Division.
Judge Reeder resides in Hurricane with his wife, Linda, a retired Putnam County teacher, and their two sons.
For more information, contact Rory Perry at 304-347-3000.