Gov. Perdue appoints Vanhook to 30th District bench
Gov. Bev Perdue Friday (June 12) appointed Danya Vanhook to the District Court bench for the 30th Judicial District, which covers Jackson, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Macon and Swain counties. Vanhook will fill the vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Brad Letts to the Superior Court bench.
“The lawyers in the 30th Judicial District sent me a tremendous list of candidates from whom to select Judge Letts’ replacement following his appointment to the Superior Court,” said Perdue. “I have concluded that Danya Vanhook has the set of qualities that will best serve the citizens of the seven counties that make up the 30th Judicial District.”
A Macon County native, Vanhook currently practices law in all seven counties in the 30th District, as well as the Cherokee Tribal Court. Vanhook represents clients in all areas of law over which the District Court presides: civil, family, juvenile, child support, DSS, criminal and traffic. Prior to opening her law practice, Vanhook was a staff attorney for the Buncombe County Department of Social Services and Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Sylva Office. She also clerked for a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Vanhook received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her law degree from New York University School of Law.
Vanhook is married to Franklin native Duane Vanhook. She and her husband and son live in Waynesville, where her husband is employed with the Haywood County Soil and Water Conservation District. Vanhook is the daughter of Deborah Phillips Myers of Balsam and the late Derold G. Ledford of Franklin.
A swearing-in ceremony is planned for Friday, June 19, 2009, at 3 p.m. at the Macon County Courthouse. A public reception will immediately follow at Mill Creek Country Club in Franklin. All members of the community are invited to attend both events.
