Chilton Davis Varner has described her Emory service as “far and away the most rewarding.” Senior counsel for trial and global disputes with King & Spalding, Varner was the firm’s first female litigation partner in 1983 and the first woman elected to the firm’s management committee in 1995. 

She speaks regularly on women’s issues and has taught a session of the Temple University Graduate Program in Litigation titled “Women as Trial Lawyers.” She also gave the Kolsby Distinguished Lecture in Trial Advocacy at Temple University Law School in 2014. 

Varner was selected for the short list of leading women lawyers by the National Law Journal, Benchmark, Law360, Chambers, the American Lawyer, US News & World Report Best Lawyers, the International Who’s Who in Product Liability, and LMG Life Sciences. 

Now an emerita trustee, Varner served on Emory’s Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2013. She is a past president of the Emory Law Alumni Association and has been recognized as an Emory Law Distinguished Alumna. In 2012, she was also the inaugural recipient of Emory Law’s Eléonore Raoul Greene Trailblazer Award. She’s also served with the Emory Chamber Music Society and Emory Alumni President’s Club. She is president emeritus of the Supreme Court Historical Society. 

In 2014, Varner received the J. Pollard Turman Alumni Service Award—one of the highest honors of the Emory Alumni Association and designated the $25,000 pledge she received to benefit Emory Law.