Emory University School of Law will hold its 2015 Alumni Awards on Friday evening at a reception and ceremony at the Tull Auditorium. This year, the law school is recognizing Thad Kodish, Sharon Israel, Reuben Guttman and C. Lash Harrison. It's also making a special faculty recognition to William Carney.

Carney taught corporate and securities law at Emory until retiring in 2012. At the beginning of the year, he and his wife, Jane, made a $1 million challenge grant to the law school for its Center for Transactional Law and Practice, which teaches students how to be deal lawyers through a curriculum that combines theory and practice.

Carney helped get the transactional law center started in 2007. “Graduates need practical knowledge, and the center gives young transactional lawyers a realistic understanding of what they need to do on day one,” he told the Daily Report when Emory announced the grant.