Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia School of Law’s alumni association recently presented Charles A. “Charlie” Hunnicutt, Joey M. Loudermilk and Rebecca Hanner White with its Distinguished Service Scroll Award.
The awards were presented at an alumni breakfast held in conjunction with the law school’s first Alumni Weekend. This accolade is the highest honor given by the Law School Association and recognizes outstanding dedication and service to the legal profession and law school.
Hunnicutt, a 1975 Georgia Law alumnus, serves as senior counsel at Thompson Hine in Washington, D.C., where he leads the firm’s International Trade and Customs Practice Group. He specializes in all aspects of transportation and logistics, with particular emphasis on government regulatory matters and international policy.
Prior to joining Thompson Hine, Hunnicutt served as the U.S. Department of Transportation’s assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, during which time he was responsible for commercial aviation policy including economic and regulatory issues as well as other international transportation and trade matters. He also gained experience in international trade while serving as legal adviser to the chair of the U.S. International Trade Commission and as executive assistant to the Under Secretary for International Trade of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Hunnicutt’s influence at Georgia Law spans four decades. He currently serves as chair of the Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy Advisory Board. He has played a role in several Rusk Center conferences focusing on both trade and aviation. He served as editor-in-chief of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law as a student and has authored articles on both international trade and aviation issues. Additionally, he has served on the law school’s Board of Visitors.
Loudermilk, a 1978 Georgia Law alumnus, currently serves as a judge with the Juvenile Court of Georgia’s Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, where his primary responsibility is to preside over cases involving children under the age of 17 from Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Talbot and Taylor counties.
He recently retired from Aflac after a 31-year career where he served as general counsel, executive vice president and corporate secretary. In 2013, Loudermilk was selected to Ethisphere Magazine’s list of “Attorneys Who Matter” in leading their companies “to the top of the ethics and compliance world.”
From 2010 to 2011, Loudermilk served on the Georgia Board of Education, a post he was appointed to by then Gov. Sonny Perdue. He presently serves on the board of Goodwill Industries, the board of directors of Columbus Regional Health and the board of trustees of the Columbus State University Foundation. He is a member and former president of the Rotary Club of Columbus. He also serves as vice chairman of the Harris County Board of Commissioners, where he has been a member since 2008.
Loudermilk graduated with honors from Georgia State University in 1975 before attending Georgia Law. He worked in private law practice in Columbus before joining Aflac in 1983 as head of the company’s newly-formed legal department.
White served as the leader of the law school from 2003 to 2014. Some highlights of her deanship include: a multimillion dollar facilities renovation; the hiring of more than 30 new faculty members that not only greatly improved the student-faculty ratio but also significantly increased the scholarly output of the school; the elevation of entering law student academic credentials; the increase of graduates in federal judicial clerkship positions including the selection of six Georgia Law graduates as U.S. Supreme Court judicial clerks; the launch of a Business Law and Ethics Program; the creation of a new degree program; the addition of six experiential learning programs; the establishment of study abroad programs at the University of Oxford and in China; and the creation of approximately 40 new endowed funds to support student scholarships and faculty.
She joined the law school’s faculty in 1989 and served as associate provost and associate vice president of academic affairs for UGA prior to being named the first female dean in Georgia Law history. In 2000, she received the Josiah Meigs Award, UGA’s highest honor for teaching excellence. She has been selected by law students six times as the recipient of the Faculty Book Award for Excellence in Teaching and has also received the John C. O’Byrne Memorial Award for Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations. She served as a UGA Senior Teaching Fellow in 2000-01 and was inducted into UGA’s Teaching Academy. In 2002, she was selected as a Senior Faculty Fellow for the university’s Foundation Fellows Program.
White’s scholarship has been cited by federal and state courts across the country and includes numerous articles on employment discrimination and labor law. In addition, she is a co-author of Employment Discrimination and Cases and Materials on Employment Discrimination.
UGA School of Law
Consistently regarded as one of the nation’s top public law schools, the UGA School of Law was established in 1859. With an accomplished faculty, which includes authors of some of the country’s leading legal scholarship, Georgia Law offers three degrees-the Juris Doctor, the Master of Laws and the Master in the Study of Law-and is home to the renowned Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy. Its advocacy program is counted among the nation’s best, winning four national championships in 2013-14 alone. For more information, see www.law.uga.edu.