Judge Ward was elected to a ten-year term on the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County in November of 2003. She served in the Family Division of the Court for four years until June of 2007. Currently, Judge Ward is one of two judges sitting in the Court’s Center for Commerce and Complex Litigation. She is a member and Vice President of the American College of Business Court Judges and was selected to be a Business Court Representative to the ABA Business Law Section. Judge Ward is a member of the Business Law Section’s M&A Litigation Joint Task Force as well as the Business and Corporation Litigation Committee and the Judges’ Initiative Committee. She serves on the statewide Judicial Ethics Committee for the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Court Judges and is the current Chair of the Civil Judges’ Section. Judge Ward has a JD, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and a BA, Washington and Jefferson College.