By many accounts Phyllis A. Kravitch was a trailblazer. She entered the practice of law in 1944 when female attorneys were few and far between. She built her reputation at her father’s law firm, becoming the first woman Savannah Bar Association president in the mid-1970s, the first woman elected as a Georgia Superior Court judge in 1976 and the third woman to serve our nation as a U.S. Circuit Court judge in 1979. Her service on the U.S. Courts of Appeals lasted almost four decades. As a permanent tribute, more than 40 of her former judicial clerks created the Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch Scholarship Fund at the University of Georgia School of Law. 

In 2019, five law students – Christopher J. Bertrand, Maria Mercedes Carruthers Ferrero, Ashley L. Henson, C. Joshua “Josh” Rewis and Amelia C. Stevens – participated in the Georgia Sea Grant Legal Fellowship Program conducting research to address critical environmental, economic and social concerns primarily affecting coastal Georgia. Bertrand and Rewis completed their fellowships this past summer along with Ferrero who continued her work through the fall semester. Stevens and Henson completed their projects this fall.