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Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears announced Wednesday she will join a think tank working on strengthening marriage and the Atlanta office of a Chicago law firm when she steps down from the bench at the end of June. Chief Justice Sears, a Savannah native, had already announced her retirement in October effective when her tenure as chief justice finishes June 30. The 53-year-old is the first woman and first black woman to serve on Georgia’s highest court, and she says she still has plenty she wants to do. The first black, female supreme court chief justice in the country, Chief Justice Sears’ name had been mentioned as a possible successor to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Chief Justice Sears, who has been divorced and later remarried, said in an interview with Morris News Service that failed relationships and children born out of wedlock account for much of the problems that wind up in court. She said family-law cases have grown from 10 percent of Georgia court dockets when Gov. Zell Miller appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1992 to 60 percent of all cases today. // Related Video: Family Breakdown: An Urgent Crisis!