Professor A. James Elliott 66L was selected to receive the 19th Annual Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award.  The award honors an attorney and a judge who have and continue to demonstrate the highest professional conduct and paramount reputation for professionalism.  The award presentation will occur on June 12, 2020, during the State Bar of Georgia's Annual Meeting at the Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort in Miramar Beach, FL.  

Elliott practiced law in Atlanta with the firm of Alston & Bird for twenty-eight years prior to returning to Emory. He is a past president of the State Bar of Georgia and of its Young Lawyers Division. He has served on several Supreme Court commissions dealing with professionalism and lawyer discipline. Professor Elliott is a co-founder of Georgia's legal services program, which has provided legal services to almost one million poor Georgians, and of Georgia’s mandatory IOLTA program, which has raised $100,000,000 for legal charities.

He is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, as well as the American and Georgia Bar Foundations. In 2012 Professor Elliott received the University’s Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award. This award goes to faculty members who foster participation, inquiry and creative expression in the classroom; provide a model for teaching and scholarship; and serve as a friend and counselor to students. In 2017, he was honored by the Committee to Promote Inclusion in the Profession of the State Bar of Georgia with the Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award. The Thrower Award recognizes an outstanding individual who has dedicated his or her career to providing opportunities that foster a more diverse legal profession for members of underrepresented groups in Georgia. 

He teaches Legal Professionalism, Banking, and Commercial Real Estate Finance.