Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Leah Ward Sears to Keynote NLADA Annual Conference

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is pleased to announce that former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Leah Ward Sears will be the keynote speaker for the opening ceremony at the NLADA 2010 Annual Conference, November 10 – 13, in Atlanta, GA. The NLADA Annual Conference, with the theme “Delivering on the Dream: Marching Toward 100 Years of Justice,” will bring together more than 800 equal justice professionals.

A champion for the poor, Sears spearheaded two major initiatives during her tenure as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia: the Georgia Supreme Court’s Commission on Children, Marriage, and Family Law; and the Committee on Civil Justice. The former was established to address the legal and administrative issues stemming from an increase in the breakup of many Georgia families. The latter, the Committee on Civil Justice, was established to expand access to the courts for poor people and other vulnerable Georgians through the development, coordination and support of policy initiatives.

Ward was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1955 and raised in Savannah, Georgia. She began her legal career in 1980 with the Atlanta firm Alston & Bird. Five years later she was appointed by then Mayor Andrew Young to the City of Atlanta Traffic Court and in 1988, she became a Superior Court judge (the first African American woman to hold that position in the state) and in 1992, a state Supreme Court justice. In 2005, she was named Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, the first woman to serve in that capacity. In 2009, Sears returned to private practice with the firm Schiff Hardin.

Chief Justice Sears’ professional and civic affiliations are illustrative of her commitment to access to justice for those without the means to hire counsel. 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. Sears also founded the Battered Women’s Project in Columbus, GA and was the first president of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys. She as a member of the Advisory Council for Action Ministries, served on the Board of Directors of the Sadie G. Mays Nursing Homes, Georgia Chapter of the National Council of Christians and Jews, and was an advisory board members 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 also 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.

Among Sears’ notable Fourth Amendment decisions was Fox v. State (2000), in which Justice Sears held that the warrantless search of a probationer’s house by a police officer (as opposed to a probation officer) is unconstitutional.

Sears also dissented in the case of Reaves v. State (2008), which involved the legitimacy of a warrant that authorized a search for evidence of murder and cruelty to children.

For more information on the 2010 NLADA Annual Conference please visit www.nlada.org/training.