Faculty Profile: Hon. Suzanne Bauknight

Honorable Suzanne H. Bauknight was sworn in as United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee (at Knoxville) on November 10, 2014.  She became Chief Judge in 2024 and has served as a judge on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2022, including as Chief Judge for 2026 and 2027.
 

Before her appointment, Judge Bauknight was an Assistant United States Attorney for ten years and Chief of the Civil Division for eight years. As Civil Chief, she was appointed by United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., as a member of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee during her time as Chair of the Department of Justice's Civil Chiefs Working Group.

A native of Hickory, North Carolina, Judge Bauknight received her Bachelor of Arts degree in international studies magna cum laude with honors from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina in 1994 and her law degree magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she attended as a Carolina Legal Scholar. Judge Bauknight served as law clerk to the Honorable C. Tolbert Goolsby, Jr., of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. Prior to joining the United States Attorney's Office, Judge Bauknight was an associate in the Knoxville, Tennessee office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, where she practiced in the areas of commercial and employment litigation.
 

Judge Bauknight is a member of the Tennessee, South Carolina, and Knoxville Bar Associations, previously serving as a member of the Board of Governors and as Co-Chair of the KBA's Government and Public Service Sector Lawyers' Section. She also is former President and an Emeritus Master of the Bench of the Hamilton Burnett Chapter of the American Inns of Court.
 

Judge Bauknight has taught trial practice for twenty years as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and is a frequent speaker locally and nationally.  In 2025, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Bauknight to the Bankruptcy Judge Education Advisory Committee, which plans educational programs for bankruptcy judges with the Federal Judicial Center. She received the Janice M. Holder Access to Justice Award in 2023 and the Knoxville Bar Association’s Law and Liberty Award in 2024.