Earlier this year, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears announced she'll step down from the state's highest court when her terms expires in June. Sears joined the Georgia Supreme Court in 1992. She was appointed to lead the court in the summer of 2005 and went on to create the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Children, Marriage and Family Law. The nation's first African American female Chief Justice will return to practicing law when her current term expires. Sears will join the Atlanta law offices of Chicago-based Schiff Hardin sometime later this year. In the meantime, Sears will teach a seminar titled "Contemporary Issues in Family Law" at the University of Georgia law school, focused on changes in marriage and divorce, and exploring controversial family issues facing the legal system. Finally, in addition to practicing law and teaching, Sears will join the Institute for American Values to serve for one year as the William Thomas Sears Distinguished Fellow in Family Law. The fellowship is named in honor of the chief justice's older brother who died in November 2007 at the age of 53. Recently, Sears' name has come up as a possible replacement to retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
