Sears' portrait unveiled at state high court

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The portrait of Leah Ward Sears, the state's former chief justice, was unveiled Wednesday at the Georgia Supreme Court.

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In 2005 Leah Ward Sears became the country's first African-American woman to preside as a state Supreme Court chief justice.

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Sears's portrait, painted by artist Jamie Lee McMahan, will be the first of a woman or African-American to hang in the state high court's courtroom among the portraits of other former chief justices. When she became chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in 2005, Sears became the country's first African-American woman to preside as a state Supreme Court chief justice.

Sears stepped down from the court on June 30. She is now a member of the Schiff Hardin law firm, teaches a seminar on family law at the University of Georgia law school and is serving a fellowship at the Institute for American Values.