• News/Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • 2026 Atlanta 500 Nominations
    • Block by Block: Stories from the streets that connect us
  • Food & Drink
    • 50 of the Best Cheap Eats in Atlanta
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 50 Best Bars
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • Restaurant Reviews
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
      • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
      • Hidden Georgia
      • North Georgia Mountains
    • Health & Wellness
    • 2024-2025 School Guide
    • Style
    • Buckhead Guidebook
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles 2024
    • Give Atlanta
  • Best of
    • Eat
    • Drink
    • Do
    • Buy
    • Readers’ Choice
  • Georgia Design
    • Georgia Design Digital Editions
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Kitchens for a Cause
    • Georgia Design Awards 2025
  • Southbound
    • Southbound Digital Editions
    • Southbound Newsletter
  • GaBiz
    • GABiz Magazine
    • GaBiz Magazine Digital Editions
  • Events
    • Magazine Events
    • GrillFest 2025
    • Georgia Design Awards 2025
    • Atlanta Magazine’s Whiskey Festival 2025
    • Past Events
      • Georgia Design Awards 2024
      • Indulge 2024
      • Whiskey Festival 2024
      • Top Doctors Reception 2024 – Green Screen
      • Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2022
      • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
    • Event Photos
    • Partner Events
  • Magazine
    • About Us
    • Subscribe
    • Purchase Single Issues
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • Contact Us
    • Pitch Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Sign up
Welcome!Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • 2026 Atlanta 500 Nominations
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Give Atlanta
  • Shop
  • Submit Your Entry for Georgia Design Awards 2025
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Create an account
Welcome! Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
  • News/Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • 2026 Atlanta 500 Nominations
    • Block by Block: Stories from the streets that connect us
  • Food & Drink
    • 50 of the Best Cheap Eats in Atlanta
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 50 Best Bars
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • Restaurant Reviews
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
      • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
      • Hidden Georgia
      • North Georgia Mountains
    • Health & Wellness
    • 2024-2025 School Guide
    • Style
    • Buckhead Guidebook
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles 2024
    • Give Atlanta
  • Best of
    • Eat
    • Drink
    • Do
    • Buy
    • Readers’ Choice
  • Georgia Design
    • Georgia Design Digital Editions
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Kitchens for a Cause
    • Georgia Design Awards 2025
  • Southbound
    • Southbound Digital Editions
    • Southbound Newsletter
  • GaBiz
    • GABiz Magazine
    • GaBiz Magazine Digital Editions
  • Events
    • Magazine Events
    • GrillFest 2025
    • Georgia Design Awards 2025
    • Atlanta Magazine’s Whiskey Festival 2025
    • Past Events
      • Georgia Design Awards 2024
      • Indulge 2024
      • Whiskey Festival 2024
      • Top Doctors Reception 2024 – Green Screen
      • Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2022
      • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
    • Event Photos
    • Partner Events
  • Magazine
    • About Us
    • Subscribe
    • Purchase Single Issues
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • Contact Us
    • Pitch Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
Home Women Making A Mark Leah Ward Sears
Custom Publication

Leah Ward Sears

This former chief justice blazes trails for female judges
By
Jennifer Bradley Franklin
-
June 4, 2015
2356

WMM_Leah-Ward-Sears_webNot everyone has the professional admiration of the U.S. President, but such is the exceptionalism of Justice Leah Ward Sears. The fifty-nine-year-old partner at Schiff Hardin, LLP caught President Obama’s attention in part because of her distinctions as the first female chief justice of any state and the first woman to serve on the Georgia Supreme Court. She landed on Obama’s short list for his U.S. Supreme Court nominations in 2009 and 2011, and some speculate she could still end up serving on the nation’s highest court.

“I believe I was considered because I had shown that I had a solid understanding of the Constitution and laws of the United States and how they should be applied,” she says. “Above all, however, I know that I would never have been considered if it wasn’t clear that I had the ability to be impartial and free of prejudice and bias, as well as the ability to set aside personal preference when affecting authority.”

Even though her list of degrees, board memberships, and charitable contributions makes her CV read like a how-to for success (for example, she holds honorary degrees from seven colleges and universities), she maintains an air of humility. She says the driving force in her career is her value of marriage and families (she herself is married with two grown children), as well as her love of problem solving. “It’s an intellectual exercise, really, leveraging the ins and outs and the complexity of the law,” she says. Who knows? One day she might apply those problem-solving skills to our nation’s highest-profile cases.

Words of Wisdom

Advertisement
  • TAGS
  • Women Making A Mark 2015
Kelundra Smith

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Custom Publication

Merritt McAlister

Custom Publication

Alexandria Wilson

Custom Publication

Kathy Schwaig

Follow Us

69,386FansLike
144,836FollowersFollow
493,480FollowersFollow

NEWSLETTERS

Atlanta Magazine
Since 1961, Atlanta magazine, the city’s premier general interest publication, has served as the authority on Atlanta, providing its readers with a mix of long-form nonfiction, lively lifestyle coverage, in-depth service journalism, and literary essays, columns, and profiles.

Most recent

With Gerry Klaskala retired, new chef Joseph Harrison shares his vision for Aria

June 20, 2025
Textile artist Camisha Butler at work

The Hapeville Depot Museum brings together artists and historians to explore the city’s stories

June 19, 2025

Round and Round: How Krispy Kreme became baked into Southern life

June 18, 2025

GREAT READS

Chùa Quang Minh, Georgia’s oldest Vietnamese Buddhist temple, hosts a meditation service.

Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, a thriving Vietnamese community calls Atlanta home

May 29, 2025
Christopher Eubanks

Christopher Eubanks searches for the confidence that brought him to new heights at Wimbledon

April 16, 2025
Horace Reid stands on a tennis court

Atlanta’s Forgotten Tennis Pioneer: Horace Reid

April 16, 2025
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Business Forum
  • Privacy and Cookies Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • General Contest Rules
© 2025. All rights reserved.