Call him Magistrate McWhorter.

Ironton attorney D.L. McWhorter has been appointed to replace John Kehoe as Lawrence County Common Pleas Court magistrate, Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Charles Cooper said Wednesday.

Kehoe is retiring after 25 years of service. His last day as magistrate is July 3. McWhorter’s first day in his new position is July 6.

Cooper said he and fellow Judge D. Scott Bowling considered four candidates and in the end, McWhorter’s experience was the deciding factor.

“He has 22 years of experience on the areas of law a magistrate sees and for that we felt like he would be able to easily move into the magistrate’s job.”

McWhorter will hear contested domestic matters, such as divorces, child custody and child support disputes. He will also hear civil cases in which there are no jury demands, such as foreclosures and debt collections.

“This is a five-day-a-week job,” Cooper said. “We had looked at making it part-time but there was just no way. It really is a five-day-a-week job.”

McWhorter said after more than two decades as an attorney, he wanted to use his experience in a new capacity, settling legal disagreement instead of arguing them.

“You get to look at both sides of an issue (as a magistrate),” McWhorter said. “As an attorney you are focused on one side and you don’t see the whole picture.”

Lambert will close his private practice, leaving Randall Lambert and Mike Davenport in that firm.

A graduate of Chesapeake High School and the University of Dayton, McWhorter and his wife, Marilyn, have two children, Chase and Kobe.