Janet Ward Black died on Sunday, Nov. 2, after a brief battle with ALS. She was 66.
Ward Black was the first woman to serve as president of both the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and the North Carolina Bar Association. She was the founder of one of the largest woman-owned law firms in the state.
As the president of the NCBA, she created the “4ALL” program, a groundbreaking initiative that provided free legal services to underserved individuals statewide.
In a January 2024 interview, we discussed her leadership style as president of both NCAJ and NCBA.
“I think the world needs visionaries. I’ve always been a big-picture person. I think I have the opportunity to envision solutions or opportunities and hopefully can write them in such a way or create them in such a way that somebody else can make good use of them.
“I think they look for people who have leadership skills, meaning can you come up with a plan that somebody’s willing to follow. You can have great ideas all day long, but if nobody’s willing to get on board with your great ideas, that doesn’t mean that you’re a leader.
“I’m a reasonably good storyteller, and I think almost every great leader has got to be to some extent a storyteller because that’s what pulls people in, is the story. Then I think you have to have the ability to set a plan and then find the right people to work the plan.
“I always did what I said I was going to do. I did it on time, and I applied some level of creativity and hopefully wisdom in whatever I did.”
