Each year, the Emory Law Alumni Awards recognize outstanding alumni who have achieved distinction in legal practice, teaching, research, or public administration and who have demonstrated distinguished service to Emory Law, the Emory Law Alumni Association, or Emory University.
Nominations
We welcome nominations throughout the year. To submit an alumni award nomination, click one of the following links:
- Distinguished Alumni Award »
- Alumni Service Award »
- Eléonore Raoul Trailblazer Award »
- Young Alumni Award »
2025 Distinguished Alumni Award
Established in 1985, the Distinguished Alumni Award is given to an alumna or alumnus who embodies the values of the school and has demonstrated extraordinary achievement in the legal profession and in service to society.
Terrence Adamson 68C 73L
A partner of prominent law firms in Atlanta and Washington for many years, Adamson served for 1981 to 2025 as the personal attorney of President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter, including representing the Carters on the US Archivist’s President Library Advisory Board. He has been a member of the Carter Center’s Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee since the Center’s inception. By appointments of two US Presidents (George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton) and Senate confirmations, Adamson served on the Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute from 1990–2010. He was a senior official of the US Department of Justice from 1977–1979, a law clerk to US Court of Appeals Judge Griffin B. Bell on the Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals from 1973–1975, and a staff reporter for The Atlanta Constitution from 1969–1971.
Adamson previously served as executive vice president of the National Geographic Society from 1998-2015, where he functioned as the chief legal officer, secretary of the Board of Trustees, senior advisor to the president and CEO, and head of International Publishing. He was a member of the board of the National Geographic Education Foundation, as well as a member of the board of National Geographic Ventures. Adamson was a Henry Luce Scholar in 1974-1975 in Tokyo, Japan. He served on the Asia Foundation’s Board of Trustees from 1985-2024; he chaired the board from 1995–2000 and became chair emeritus in 2024.
Adamson earned his BA in history from Emory University in 1968 and his JD (with honors) from Emory University School of Law in 1973. On the occasion of Emory’s 175th year, he was named one of Emory’s 175 history makers.
Adamson is married to Ede Holiday, and they have three children and four grandchildren. The Adamsons currently reside in Boynton Beach, Florida, and Highlands, North Carolina.
2025 Alumni Service Award
The Alumni Service Award honors an alumna or alumnus who has contributed significant, sustained leadership and outstanding service to the Emory Law community.
Benjamin Fink 92L
A prolific thought leader in the field, Fink co-authored a practice note on Georgia confidentiality, nondisclosure, and non-solicitation agreements for Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law, and he regularly blogs on noncompete and trade secret topics. In recognition of his proficiency in the field of trade secrets, Fink was invited to attend the inaugural Sedona Conference on Developing Best Practices for Trade Secrets, held in December 2017. Fink previously served as a contributing editor to The Sedona Conference Commentary on Protecting Trade Secrets in Litigation About Them and continues to serve on The Sedona Conference Working Group 12 on trade secrets.
Fink regularly lectures on noncompete, trade secret, and other related topics throughout the country, including at the Practicing Law Institute’s annual Noncompetes and Restrictive Covenants and Advanced Trade Secrets seminars and at Emory University School of Law. In October 2025, Fink moderated a trade secrets presentation at the 2025 Sedona Conference Working Group 12 Annual Meeting at Emory.
Fink previously chaired the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s trade secrets committee and the Atlanta Bar Association’s labor and employment law section. He currently co-chairs the Atlanta Bar Association’s judicial selection and tenure committee.
Fink has earned recognition in Chambers USA, World Intellectual Property Review, Super Lawyers, and Georgia Trend’s Legal Elite. The Best Lawyers in America© recently named him Lawyer of the Year for litigation – labor and employment in Georgia. In 2015, he was elected as a member of the prestigious Litigation Counsel of America.
Fink is deeply involved with his alma mater, Emory University School of Law. He served on the Emory Law Alumni Board as president-elect (2019–2020), president (2021–2023), and immediate past president (2023–2024). Fink was also a member of the Dean Search Advisory Committee in 2023. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University.
In his spare time, Fink enjoys spending time with his family, bicycling, swimming, kayaking, hiking, and engaging in other outdoor adventures.
2025 Eléonore Raoul Trailblazer Award
The Eléonore Raoul Trailblazer Award commemorates Eléonore Raoul 1920L, the first woman admitted to Emory University and a national leader in the women’s suffrage movement. It can be awarded to any Emory Law alumnus who has blazed a trail for women through their own professional and personal endeavors.
Youshea Berry 02L
Berry most recently served as a US diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. As the resident legal officer on the USAID/Indonesia leadership team, she advised American and local staff on a wide range of legal matters, including compliance, government contracts, ethics, and employment issues. Prior to this overseas assignment, Berry was the deputy assistant general counsel for legislation and policy and served as the senior attorney for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at the agency’s Washington, DC headquarters. She managed an intergenerational team of foreign service officers and civil servants as a division chief in the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs at USAID. Berry also served as a congressional staff member to influential members of Congress in both the U.S. House and Senate, honing her leadership skills through selective and prestigious programs. During a previous presidential administration, Berry was the director of global development and strategic planning at the White House/National Security Council (NSC). She concurrently served as the NSC representative to the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Board of Directors.
Prior to her public service career, Berry's entrepreneurial spirit and volunteer experience at a women’s microenterprise collective in West Africa inspired her to found a small law firm in downtown Washington, DC. At the firm, she focused on supporting entrepreneurs, providing strategic legal insight to business and non-profit leaders. Berry also served as a civil mediator.
Berry has won numerous national awards from organizations including the American Bar Association, National Bar Association, and Maryland State Bar Association. She has also served on the executive boards including the Greater Washington Area Chapter of the National Bar Association (Women’s Lawyers Division); the Bar Association of DC; the Maryland State Bar Association; and the American Bar Association’s Commission on Ethics 20/20, Solo and Small Firm Division, and the Leadership Council of the Young Lawyers’ Division of the ABA.
Berry earned her BA in English with honors from Xavier University of Louisiana. She earned a JD from Emory University School of Law, where she was a Presidential Merit Scholar, a competitor on the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team, and served on the Executive Board of the Emory Black Law Students Association. After graduating, Berry remained engaged with the Emory community, serving as an Emory scholar at the Barton Child Law & Policy Clinic, co-chair of Government Affairs for the Emory Alumni Association, an adjunct professor of International Law, an Emory Law Alumni Board member, and a student mentor.
Berry is a mother, wife, and recovering competitive triathlete, competing in both the Olympic and Half-Ironman distances. Berry is learning to play the Angklung, an Indonesian musical instrument she believes epitomizes her life’s journey. According to UNESCO, “the collaborative nature of Angklung music promotes cooperation and mutual respect among the players, along with discipline, responsibility, concentration, development of imagination and memory.”
2025 Young Alumni Award
The Young Alumni Award recognizes the professional and personal achievements of an alumna or alumnus who graduated within the past 15 years and has made notable leadership and service contributions to Emory Law and to the legal profession.
Benjamin R. Farley 11L
Prior to joining the National Immigration Law Center, Farley worked with the U.S. Department of State in a variety of roles. As a senior adviser to the Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure, he led or supported efforts that resulted in the resettlement or repatriation of 125 men previously detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. In his role as supervisory trial attorney and law-of-war counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense, Military Commissions Defense Organization, Farley represented Ammar al Baluchi before the capital 9/11 military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As director of the State Department’s Office of Terrorist Detentions, Farley led efforts to repatriate foreign nationals from detention facilities and displaced persons camps in northeast Syria, contributing to the return of thousands of women and children to their countries of origin. Recently, Farley completed the Partnership for Public Service’s Excellence in Government fellowship.
In addition to his legal work, Farley is also active in academia. He is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Center. Farley has also served as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he taught public international law, and he is regularly invited to guest lecture on topics related to international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and counterterrorism. During the 2022-2023 academic year, Farley took a leave of absence from the U.S. Department of State to temporarily join Emory University School of Law’s faculty as a visiting professor and the acting director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic, where he taught courses on public international law, international humanitarian law, and national security law.
Farley’s scholarship and writing have appeared in a variety of publications, including the Emory International Law Review, the Michigan Journal of International Law, the Virginia Journal of International Law, Just Security, Lawfare, Articles of War, and The Atlantic. In 2025, he and Alka Pradhan received an honorable mention from the American Society of International Law’s Lieber Society for their article, “Establishing a Practical Test for the End of Non-International Armed Conflict,” which appeared in the 106th volume of the International Review of the Red Cross.
Farley currently serves on the Lieber Society’s executive board and is a previous term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.