Pamela Carter President - Cummins Distribution Business (Photo: Business Wire)

It’s not every day that someone is honored for excellence by their peers. It’s even rarer, however, to have the award named in your honor.

That’s exactly what happened recently to Pamela Carter, President – Cummins Distribution Business. The Pamela L. Carter award was created by Inside Counsel magazine to recognize former corporate General Counsels who have gone on to lead a business unit at a large public or private company.

The award, given for the first time on May 24, was part of Inside Counsel’s Transformative Leadership awards program. The program recognized women who have risen to leadership positions in the legal profession, as well as the law firms and individuals who have been exceptional in their support of women in the profession.

Nine individuals and one law firm were honored by Inside Counsel. The award in Carter’s name was given to Rose Ann Scanlon, Executive Director, Commercial Operations, for the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Inside Counsel chose Carter to be the namesake for the award in recognition of her ability to “achieve what very few can conceive” and for her “lifelong commitment to success.”

The magazine also cited Carter’s history of community involvement that goes back to the start of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, when she worked as a community organizer and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Carter joined Cummins as General Counsel in 1997 after a distinguished career in private legal practice and as Attorney General for the state of Indiana from 1993-1997, where she was the first African-American woman in the country to be elected to that position.

In 2000, Carter became General Manager of Fleetguard (known as Cummins Filtration today), and she became president of Cummins Filtration in 2005. She moved into her current role in December 2007. Throughout her career at Cummins, Carter also has served as a role model and mentor to many women across the Company.