Janet Ward Black Receives First Women in the Profession Trailblazer Award
“Trailblazer” may not be the first word that comes to mind when describing Janet Ward Black, principal owner of Ward Black Law in Greensboro and a past president of the North Carolina Bar Association and the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers (now Advocates for Justice).
But “trailblazer” is certainly appropriate when you consider her leadership of one of the state’s largest woman-owned law firms and her establishment of the North Carolina Bar Foundation’s signature pro bono event, which began as 4ALL Statewide Service Day during her tenure as president in 2007-08 and continues to this day.
It is also fitting and most appropriate that the NCBA Women in the Profession (WIP) Committee has selected Black as the inaugural recipient of The Trailblazer Award for Women in the Law.
Janet Ward Black, left, accepts Trailblazer Award from Manisha Patel, immediate past-chair of the Women in the Profession Committee.
The award was presented in downtown Raleigh on Thursday, May 15, at the committee’s first awards dinner. Former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley was the featured speaker and Manisha Patel, former committee chair, presented the award. Lisa Angel and Judge Christine Walczyk, who co-chaired the Award Nomination Committee, and WIP Chair Allyn Elliott also participated in the program.
The Trailblazer Award for Women in the Law was established to recognize NCBA members who have “demonstrated excellence in her area of practice, unending professionalism, and the persistent promotion and protection of other women in the legal profession.”
Janet Ward Black has fulfilled these attributes throughout her career, dating back almost to the years immediately following her selection as Miss North Carolina in 1980 and her graduation from Davidson College in 1982 and Duke University School of Law in 1985.
Almost!
“I made some bad decisions in law school, including not taking trial ad,” she explained. “I didn’t think I wanted to be a courtroom lawyer. And then, when I got out and struggled to find a job and ended up in a small firm in Charlotte, I realized that what I thought I wanted to do was not for me.”
That is when the trailblazing began and she landed a job as the first female assistant district attorney in Cabarrus County, where her hometown of Kannapolis is located, and neighboring Rowan County.
“They had not had a ‘girl lawyer’ as an assistant district attorney at that time,” Black continued. “That was a disadvantage – that I had not taken trial ad – so I had to figure out how to work in a way that I would earn the respect of the police officers and the criminal defense lawyers and the judiciary during that time.
“I now realize how incredibly fortunate I was for that position, because I got to try cases for three and a half years – 10 months in District Court and then almost three years in Superior Court. I was about 30 when I left the DA’s office. I got so much incredible experience and loved every minute.”
Fast forward a few years, after entering private practice in Salisbury in 1988 and then Greensboro in 1992, and the trail takes an important turn.
“I got a call from Melinda Lawrence, who at the time was the chair of the Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association (1994-95),” Black recalled. “I was probably 32 or maybe 33 years old, and I did not understand completely what the distinction was between the North Carolina State Bar and the Bar Association.
“When she called, she told me about the Litigation Section and asked me if I would like to be a member of it and serve on the council. And I said, ‘Why do you think it would be a good thing for me to do?’ And she said one sentence that has been pivotal in my life. She said, ‘I have never left a meeting when I didn’t come out a better lawyer.’”
Janet Ward Black, center, commemorates 4ALL’s 10th anniversary with founding Co-Chairs Caryn McNeill and Martin Brinkley.
Lawrence, a partner with Patterson, Harkavy and Lawrence LLP at that time, would go on to serve as executive director of the N.C. Justice Center.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, Melinda Lawrence is calling.’ That is what caused me to answer the phone. That was the call that set me on the path of the Litigation Section. And she was right. I have never left an NCBA meeting that didn’t leave me a better lawyer. And I had a male boss who told me what volunteer bar organizations I would be volunteering for. I’m just so grateful for all of that because I have this rich network of friends through those volunteer organizations that make the practice of law a lot of fun.”
One of her closest colleagues in the Litigation Section was the late Don Cowan, who preceded Black by a few years as both chair of the section and as a president of the NCBA.
“How I started speaking at Bar Association CLEs was Don Cowan,” Black said. “He would ask me, as your resident plaintiffs’ lawyer, to speak at his advanced federal evidence training that he did once a year. Liz Kuniholm was another female plaintiffs’ lawyer – she was the second woman president of the Trial Lawyers – that he would ask to do the same.
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“And I thought, ‘What in the world am I doing here teaching advanced federal evidence?’ But that was quintessential Don Cowan. He picked women attorneys out, and he put them in places they didn’t deserve to be. But then, because it was Don Cowan’s seminar, everybody got to hear us. He asked me to speak, year after year, and I think that allowed me to gain notoriety and credibility I don’t know how I would have gotten it, without somebody like Don looking for women to place in a position of authority that they may not have earned.”
Rest assured, Janet Ward Black has earned her status in the legal profession as a whole and the legal aid community in particular. A devoted advocate of providing civil legal services to the poor, she currently serves as vice chair of the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors, and shaped her entire year as NCBA president around this cause.
“When I came in as president-elect of the Bar Association,” Black said, “I knew that I needed to do something that mattered during that year – to be able to try to address people who can’t afford lawyers, people who are in extreme conditions because of their lack of a powerful voice. And then, to add to it, how few lawyers support the provision of legal services to the poor – how quickly after law school people forget why they became a lawyer. I was driving on Battleground, about half a mile from here, when the combination of the communication method came together, which was to Educate, Participate, Donate and Legislate.”
To top it off, Black came up with what she refers to as her BHAGs – big hairy audacious goals – recruit 1,000 lawyer volunteers and raise $1 million for legal services.
“I thought those were good rallying cries,” Black said, “I do realize the volunteers and the staff did everything humanly possible so that we hit 1,073 volunteers that first year – and I believe it is still the largest volunteer effort that the Bar Association has ever put on. When you say, ‘Oh, we need a statewide call-in number,’ most people would just spontaneously combust when they hear something like that. Our folks made it happen.
“I’ve not necessarily been the worker bee, but I think I’ve been blessed to have some ideas that other people believed had value. I’ve always considered myself the idea person. And then I always try to choose the very best implementers. That is why 4ALL worked, as crazy as it sounded when we started, because I chose Martin Brinkley and Caryn McNeill as the first co-chairs, and then they had 50 people on their committee who were incredible implementers.”
Then-President Janet Ward Black, left, welcomes Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the historic 2007 Women in the Profession Committee event in Asheville.
Janet Ward Black has also surrounded herself with outstanding implementers at Ward Black Law, including her husband, Gerard Davidson. The Christian-led law firm is unique in that for more than a decade it has donated 10 percent of its gross revenue to nonprofit causes. The firm adheres to six core values – Integrity, Always Improving, Relentless, Service Above Self, Respectful, and Excellence – that permeate every aspect of its operation.
“There are probably very few weeks when I don’t have a female college student or a female law student want to come here and see what we do,” Black said, “and you realize that it is still somewhat unique. I’m fortunate. Nobody told me when I was in law school that I was going to have run a business or that I was going to have to get clients and keep them. But I realized early on that I had to learn the business side, because frankly, we are a business that just happens to provide legal services.”
Plaintiffs’ work, she continued, is most consistent with the work she was doing in the DA’s office.
“When I was in the DA’s office,” Black said, “if I thought somebody was overcharged, I reduced it. If I thought they shouldn’t have been charged, I dismissed it. That was the authority that the DA’s gave us. With the plaintiffs’ personal injury practice, we do the same thing. If we think somebody is lying to us, we fire the client.
“If somebody’s rude to the staff person, we fire the client. We are able to control who our clients are in a way that seems intellectually consistent with trying to do the right thing and trying to maintain the integrity of the core values of the business.”
Those values, and the relentless energy that she applies to upholding and promoting them, can all be traced back to her inestimable faith.
“Very much so,” Black agreed. “You probably heard me say before – that I’m the turtle on the fence post. When you see the turtle on the fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself.
“These different milestones that have been recognized are things where I know I didn’t deserve them, so I have always felt like God had a purpose in my placement.”
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.