Attorney
Founder at
Ward Black Law
Greensboro, North Carolina, 27401
Attorney Janet Ward Black is the principal owner of Ward Black Law located in Greensboro. It is one of the largest woman-owned law firms in our state. The firm’s clients have received settlements of more than $100 million over the last 10 years. The firm represents people injured at work, in accidents, and by dangerous products and environmental hazards across North Carolina. A graduate of Davidson College cum laude in economics and Duke Law School, Black served as the third woman president of the North Carolina Association of Trial Lawyers and the fourth woman president of the North Carolina Bar Association. She was the second lawyer in history to serve as president of both organizations.
The program she created while president of the 16,000-member Bar Association, “4 ALL,” has been used as a model in the United States and Canada for providing free legal services to the poor. The 4ALL program included a telephone call-in day during which more than a thousand NC lawyers provided free legal advice to any person who called a central toll-free number. More than 7000 people consulted with a lawyer that day. Over 100,000 North Carolinians have been assisted by a North Carolina lawyer at no charge since “4 ALL” began. Black is a frequent lawyer, educator and motivational speaker. She is a Trustee Emeritus of Hood Theological Seminary and has served on many non-profit boards and on many international mission trips. She received the North Carolina State Bar’s Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and the Charles Murphy Award for Public Service by Duke Law School in 2010. Black has been named in North Carolina Super Lawyers, North Carolina’s Legal Elite and The Best Lawyers in America and her firm has been named as one of the Best Law Firms in America by US News & World Reports since 2010. She is a member of the Women’s Presidents Organization and C12, Christian CEOs, and Business Owners’ Group. She was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2016, the highest civilian honor in the state of North Carolina. She received the North Carolina Bar Association Litigation Section’s “Advocate’s Award” for skill, ethics and dedication to clients and the community in 2018. She was named the Community Foundation of Great Greensboro’s Woman of the Year in 2018 and Personal Injury “Lawyer of the Year” in the Triad by US News & World Report in 2020. Black served as Miss North Carolina 1980. She won a Grand Talent award at the 1980 Miss America pageant.
