Leah Ward Sears

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Leah Ward Sears (born June 13, 1955) is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. state of Georgia. When sworn in on June 28, 2005, Sears became the only African-American female Chief Justice in the United States. When she was first appointed as justice in 1992 by then Governor Zell Miller, she became the first woman and youngest person to sit on the Georgia Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Sears received her B.S. from Cornell University in 1976, her J.D. from Emory University in 1980 and an LL.M from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995. Prior to becoming a Superior Court Judge in 1988 (the first African-American woman to hold that position in the state), she was a trial attorney with law firm Alston & Bird and a judge in the City of Atlanta Traffic Court, to which she was appointed by then-Mayor Andrew Young.

The daughter of U.S. Army Colonel Thomas E. Sears and Onnye Jean Sears, Justice Sears was born in Heidelberg, Germany, but the family eventually settled in Savannah, Georgia where Leah attended and graduated high school.

Although historically a non-partisan election, the Georgia Republican Party and Georgia Christian Coalition targeted Sears for defeat in 2004. Based in large part on her highly regarded record, she defeated her challenger with 62% of the vote.

She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband Haskell Ward. She is the mother of Addison Sears-Collins and Brennan Sears-Collins.