In the course of her endeavors, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has achieved a distinguished position in Georgia's history.  She was the youngest person and first Black woman to serve as a Superior Court Judge in Georgia, and when appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Zell Miller, she became the first woman and youngest person ever to serve on that Court.  In retaining her appointed position as a Supreme Court Justice, Chief Justice Sears became the first woman to win a contested state-wide election in Georgia.  In July 2005, she became the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.  Chief Justice Sears was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and grew up in Savannah, Georgia.  Before joining the Georgia Supreme Court, Chief Justice Sears was a trial judge on the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, where she presided over civil, domestic, and criminal trials.  Chief Justice Sears was a practicing attorney with Alston & Bird and a 27 year-old judge on the City Court of Atlanta before being elected to the Superior Court bench.

During her tenure, Chief Justice Sears has spearheaded two major initiatives: the Georgia Supreme Court’s Commission on Children, Marriage, and Family Law and the Committee on Civil Justice.  The Commission on Children, Marriage, and Family Law was established to address the legal and administrative issues stemming from the increasing fragmentation of Georgia’s families, while the Committee on Civil Justice was established to develop, coordinate and support policy initiatives to expand access to the courts for poor and vulnerable Georgians.

Chief Justice Sears received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, and her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law.  She earned a Master's Degree in appellate judicial process from the University of Virginia and has honorary doctor of laws degree from Morehouse College, Clark-Atlanta University, LaGrange College and Piedmont College. 

Chief Justice Sears' professional and civic affiliations are varied and numerous.  She has served on the Board of Visitors of Mercer Law School, and the Emory Law School Council, where she taught pretrial litigation as an adjunct professor.  She is past Chair of the American Bar Association's Board of Elections and past Chair of the Judicial Section of the Atlanta Bar Association where she also served as Chair of the Minority Clerkship Program.  Chief Justice Sears founded and served as the first President of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys and founded the Battered Women’s Project in Columbus, Georgia.  She was a member of the Advisory Council for Action Ministries, served on the Board of Directors of the Sadie G. Mays Nursing Home, Georgia Chapter of the National Council of Christians and Jews, and was an advisory board member of the Albany Law Review, the Honors Program at North Georgia College, and Mission New Hope (a metropolitan Atlanta area drug abuse coalition responsible for starting Atlanta’s first drug court).  Chief Justice Sears served on the Cornell University Women's Council, the Steering Committee for Georgia Women's History Month and was an advisor for the Atlanta Women’s Network and the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children.

Chief Justice Sears is a member of the National Association of Women Judges, the Atlanta Chapter of Links, Inc., the Women's Forum of Georgia, the Atlanta Women’s Network, the United States Supreme Court Historical Society and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.  The Chief Justice is also a member of the American, Georgia, Gate City, Atlanta, and National Bar Associations.  In 2006, she was selected by Law Dragon as one of the 500 Leading Judges in America.

Emory University has honored Chief Justice Sears as an "Outstanding Young Alumnae",   and as the Barkley Forum "Georgia Speaker of the Year."  In 2001, she was named by Business to Business magazine as one of Georgia’s “Ten Divas.”  Georgia Trend magazine has honored Justice Sears as one of the "100 Most Influential Georgians," and  Business Atlanta magazine named her as one of the "Under Forty and on the Fast Track."  In 1992, she received the "Margaret Brent Woman Lawyer of Achievement" award from the American Bar Association, the "Drum Major for Justice" award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Women during Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Week, and was honored as an "Atlantan on the Move" by 100 Black Men of Atlanta.  Also in 1992, Justice Sears received the "Excellence in Public Service" award from the Georgia Coalition of Black Women and was named by the YWCA of Greater Atlanta as one of its ten "Outstanding Women of Achievement."  In 2002, she was honored by the Atlanta Business League as one of Atlanta’s Top 100 Black Women of Influence.  She has received the Kappa Alpha Psi Lifetime Achievement Award; Women Out Front; EPIC; the Shining Star Award; the Ben F. Johnson Public Service Award; the President’s Award from Concerned Black Clergy; the Leadership Award from the Atlanta Bar; the Urban League Women of Power Award; the Commitment to Equality Award; the SEABOTA Jurist of the Year Award; the Wesley Community Center Outstanding Service Award; the   Greater Turner Tabernacle Outstanding Achievement Award; the Roslyn Carter Award; the Emory University Distinguished Alumni Award; and Wesleyan College’s Woman of Achievement Award.  Chief Justice Sears received a Privileged Resolution from the Georgia General Assembly in 2005 and was the recipient of the Trumpet Award in 2006.  She was named by Atlanta Magazine as one of the “Ten Best Dressed Atlantans” in 2006.  Chief Justice Sears has also been named to the Gate City Bar Association Hall of Fame.   She delivered the prestigious Brennan Lecture at New York University in 2007. 

In 2009, Chief Justice Sears retired from the Supreme Court of Georgia after 27 years of service in the judiciary.  After her retirement, she joined Schiff Hardin, LLC in its Atlanta office as a partner in the Litigation Group, where she currently practices general and appellate litigation, as well as handles corporate compliance issues.  In addition to practicing law, Chief Justice Sears dedicates her first year off the bench to working on issues in family law.  She is a visiting professor on contemporary issues in family law at the University of Georgia School of Law for the 2009-2010 academic year, and she also serves as the William Thomas Sears Distinguished Fellow in Family Law at the Institute for American Values, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution. 

Chief Justice Sears is the daughter of Mrs. Onnye Jean Sears and the late Colonel Thomas E. Sears and is married to Haskell Sears Ward, Executive Vice President for Global Aluminum Company.  She is the proud mother of a son, Addison, and daughter, Brennan.