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August 24, 2009
Two alumni trustees join Emory Board

By Beverly Clark

Emory University’s Board of Trustees has elected two new members: attorneys Susan Cahoon of Atlanta, and Jonathan Layne of Los Angeles. Nominated by the Emory Alumni Board, they were elected as alumni trustees during the board’s June meeting.

Susan Cahoon
Cahoon, partner and general counsel of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, joined the firm in 1971. She became the firm’s first female partner in 1977 and has spent her career as a litigator. Trained as both a mediator and an arbitrator, she is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the American Law Institute. She served on the board of directors of the Atlanta Bar Association (1981-1987) and received its Leadership Award in 1991.

After earning dual undergraduate degrees in history and economics from Emory College in 1968, the summa cum laude graduate went on to receive a J.D. degree cum laude from Harvard University.

Cahoon was a nationally recognized intercollegiate debater at Emory and a leading member of the team that won Emory its first national debate championship in 1967. She was the first woman president of the Atlanta Emory Club (elected in 1973) and received the Emory College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Award of Distinction in 2001 in recognition of her contributions to her profession, community and college alma mater.
She is a native of Jacksonville, Fla.

Jonathan Layne
Layne is a partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles. He joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an associate in 1979, and is currently co-chair of the mergers and acquisitions group and a member of the firm’s executive committee. He has extensive experience in advising corporate boards and is an expert and frequent lecturer on mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and securities law topics. Layne has been selected by Chambers and Partners as a “Leading Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer” for 2005-2009, and as a “Leading Capital Markets: Debt & Equity Lawyer” for 2007-2009 for its “Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” directories. He also has been named among “The Best of the Bar” for Corporate Transactions by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

After receiving his B.A. in economics from the College of William and Mary in 1975, Layne earned both his J.D. (with distinction) and M.B.A. from the Emory School of Law and Goizueta Business School in 1979. He graduated from Emory Law School as a member of the Order of the Coif and served as managing editor of the Emory Law Journal. He graduated from Goizueta Business School as a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honor society. He is married to Emory alumna Sheryl S. Layne ’79C, and both have been involved alumni. Layne was a member of the Emory Law School Advisory Board from 2000-2008. Layne is a member of the board of directors of the California Chamber of Commerce and is a past chairman of the board of trustees and president of The John Thomas Dye School, an independent elementary school in Los Angeles.

“These new trustees represent the wide range of alumni expertise and talent,” says Rosemary Magee, vice president and secretary of the University, who works closely with the board of trustees. “They will serve Emory extremely well as we continue on the trajectory of becoming a national and international destination university.”