Research Catalog

Title

Justice Leah Ward Sears : seizing serendipity / Rebecca Shriver Davis.

Author

Davis, Rebecca Shriver

Publication

Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

165 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"This is the first full biography of Justice Leah Ward Sears. In 1992 Sears became the first woman and youngest justice to sit on the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 2005 she became the first African American woman to serve as chief justice of any state supreme court in the country. This book explores her childhood in a career military family; her education; her early work as an attorney; her rise through Georgia's city, county, and state court systems; and her various pursuits after leaving the supreme court in 2009, when she transitioned into a life that was no less active or public. As the biography recounts Sears's life and career, it is filled with instances of how Sears made her own luck by demonstrating a sharpness of mind and sagacious insight, a capacity for grueling hard work, and a relentless drive to succeed. Sears also maintained a strict devotion to judicial independence and the rule of law, which led to decisions that would surprise conservatives and liberals alike, earned the friendship of figures as diverse as Ambassador Andrew Young and Justice Clarence Thomas, and solidified a reputation that would land her on the short list of replacements for two retiring U.S. Supreme Court justices." -- -- Publisher's website.

Alternative Title

Seizing serendipity

Subject

• Sears, Leah Ward, 1955-
• African American women judges > Georgia > Biography
• African American women lawyers > Georgia > Biography
• Women judges > Georgia > Biography
• Judges > Georgia > Biography
• African American women judges
• African American women lawyers
• Judges
• Women judges
• Georgia

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Note

• "A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-158) and index.

Contents

Introduction -- Climb every mountain -- An intellectual feast -- Love, life, and death -- The year of the woman -- Not yet a pretty world -- A splendid touch -- Epilogue.

ISBN

• 9780820351650
• 0820351652
• 9780820351643 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2017009397

OCLC

• ocn975998329
• 975998329
• SCSB-8847839

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library