The School of Law recently bestowed the Distinguished Service Scroll Award, the Law School Association’s highest honor, on former School of Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge and 1989 graduate Yvette K. Daniels for their outstanding dedication and service to the legal profession and the law school. Additionally, Carson M. Alexander was presented with the Young Alumni/Alumnae of Excellence Award.
Daniels currently serves as the director of university relations in the Division of Workforce Management for the Georgia Department of Public Health. She previously served as the DPH director of health promotion and was responsible for several vital public programs. During her 25 years in state government, she also served as a division attorney and legislative director.
While living in Jacksonville, Florida, she worked as an assistant state attorney and was responsible for prosecuting sex offenses against children and women.
Daniels, who was the first Black woman president of the UGA Alumni Association, served as the 77th president of the group from 2021 to 2023. She currently serves as a trustee for the UGA Foundation Board and is a member of the UGA School of Public and International Affairs Board of Visitors.
A Double Dawg, Daniels earned her bachelor’s degree in political science in 1986. She is a Leadership Georgia graduate, and she serves on the Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center Community Coalition Board. She is also the past president of the Stone Mountain chapter of Jack and Jill of America.
Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander, an associate professor emeritus in the UGA Terry College of Business Legal Studies Program, presented Daniels with her honor.
Rutledge, holder of the Talmadge Chair of Law, served as dean of the School of Law from January 1, 2015, until December 31, 2024.
Under his leadership, the school achieved back-to-back top 20 rankings by U.S. News & World Report and was named the nation’s Best Value Law School for five out of the past seven years by National Jurist.
Rutledge joined the UGA law faculty in 2008, previously serving as associate dean for faculty development and winning multiple teaching awards. He was formerly a Fulbright Professor at the University of Vienna Law School, and he is presently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
A former U.S. Supreme Court judicial clerk, Rutledge is the author of Arbitration and the Constitution and co-author of International Civil Litigation in United States Courts. His work has been published by Yale, Oxford and Cambridge university presses. He earned a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard, an M.Litt. in Applied Ethics from the University of Aberdeen and a J.D. with high honors from The University of Chicago, where he was executive editor of The University of Chicago Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
Gordon Woodward, who is a partner and chief investment officer at Kohlberg & Company in New York, presented Rutledge his award. Woodward and Rutledge were college roommates.
Alexander is a partner at Alexander & Alexander Attorneys at Law focusing on personal injury law. She was recently sworn in as a part-time associate municipal judge in Springfield, South Carolina.
Previously, Alexander was an assistant solicitor for the South Carolina 2nd Judicial Circuit and a judicial clerk for Chief Administrative Judge Brian M. Gibbons with the South Carolina 6th Judicial Circuit. She also served as a staff attorney for Judge J. Wade Padgett and Judge Daniel J. Craig of Georgia’s Augusta Judicial Circuit.
She is actively engaged in her local community of Barnwell, South Carolina, as chair of the Barnwell County Accommodations Tax Committee and as a member of the advisory board for A New Direction YouthBuild.
Alexander earned her undergraduate degree from Augusta University. During law school, she was president of the Class of 2017, a member of the mock trial team and the senior managing editor of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.
William H. “Wil” Alexander (J.D.’16), who is her husband and also her law firm partner, presented her award.
Pictured (l. to r.) are Wil Alexander, Carson Alexander, Yvette Daniels, Dean Usha R. Rodrigues, Dawn Bennett-Alexander, Bo Rutledge, Gordon Woodward and UGA President Jere Morehead (J.D.'80).
Photos by Justin Evans