THE HON. SUZANNE BAUKNIGHT is a bankruptcy judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the    Eastern District of Tennessee.  Judge Bauknight has served in the Eastern District of Tennessee (at Knoxville) since November 2014.  She also has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals beginning January 1, 2022.  Before her appointment Judge Bauknight was an Assistant United States Attorney and Civil Division Chief in the Eastern District of Tennessee, representing federal agencies in a variety of matters, including bankruptcy and debt collection.  While Chair of the Department of Justice’s Civil Chiefs Working Group, she was appointed to the Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Judge Bauknight earned her B.A. in international studies magna cum laude with honors from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina and her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law, attending as a Carolina Legal Scholar and graduating second in her law school class.  She started her legal career as law clerk to S.C. Court of Appeals Judge C. Tolbert Goolsby, Jr., before moving to Knoxville to join the firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, where she practiced in commercial and employment litigation.  

Judge Bauknight is a member of the Tennessee, South Carolina, and Knoxville Bar Associations and has served as a member of the KBA Board of Governors and as co-chair of the Government and Public Service Sector Lawyers’ Section. She is an Emeritus Master of the Bench and past president of the Hamilton Burnett Chapter of the American Inns of Court. Judge Bauknight was an Associate Editor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal.  She also teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law.