Joel C. Hoppe has been appointed the new magistrate judge for the Western District of Virginia.  Mr. Hoppe, a Richmond native, is currently an assistant federal public defender in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.  He is a 1998 graduate of the University of Virginia, and a 2002 graduate of the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams School of Law.  Mr. Hoppe clerked for magistrate judges in both the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, worked for several years in the state Attorney General's Office before entering private practice.  Hoppe will take the bench early next year for the beginning of his initial eight year term as magistrate judge.  Although his offices will be in Harrisonburg, I assume that he will also handle the magistrate duties for cases in the Charlottesville division.  I look forward to appearing before Judge Hoppe in the near future.