| Summary: | Judge Leah Ward Sears was born on June 13, 1955 in Heidelberg, Germany. She attended public elementary and high schools in Savannah, Georgia. In 1976, Sears earned her B.S. degree at Cornell University and moved to Atlanta, where she attended Emory University to earn her J.D. degree. She would later earn her LL.M degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. In Atlanta, she worked as a trial lawyer for the law firm, Alston and Bird. In 1985, Mayor Andrew Young appointed her as a judge in Atlanta's City Traffic Court. In 1988, Sears was appointed a Superior Court judge for the state of Georgia, becoming the first African American woman to hold the position in Georgia. In February of 1992, Governor Zell Miller appointed Sears to Georgia's Supreme Court. She became the first woman and the youngest person ever to serve on Georgia's Supreme Court. Sears was chief justice from 2005 until 2009.
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