CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Hamlin native and Charleston attorney Stephanie Thacker to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thacker had been nominated by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to fill the seat held by Judge M. Blane Michael, who died in March 2011 and had held the position on the federal appeals court since 1993.

In a statement, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., congratulated Thacker on her appointment.

"She is renowned in our state for her mastery of the law and of the courtroom, and I have no doubt that she will make a highly successful federal judge," said Manchin, whose remarks were entered into the Congressional Record.     

In 1999, Thacker began working as a trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. She was part of the legal team that prosecuted the first case brought under the Violence Against Women Act.

She has worked for private law firms in Pittsburgh and Charleston, for the West Virginia attorney general's office and for the U.S. Attorney's Office the Southern District of West Virginia. In 2006, she began working for the Charleston law firm of Guthrie & Thomas.