Ettie Ward

Before joining the law faculty at St. John’s, Professor Ward was a litigator in a major New York law firm.  While in private practice, she litigated complex securities, labor, fraud, contract, and other commercial cases in state and federal courts.

Professor Ward received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar each year and a member of the Columbia Law Review.  She received her B.A, cum laude from Barnard College in three years and was on the Dean’s List for all three years.

Professor Ward has been active in the Federal Bar Council, the American Bar Association, the City Bar of New York, and the New York State Bar Association.  She is a currently a member of the Program Committee of the Federal Bar Council and a Director of the Federal Bar Foundation.  She also serves on the Federal Courts Committee of the City Bar Association.  She has been co-chair of various subcommittees and is currently a Vice-Chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section; she previously had been a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section  and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the New York State Bar Association.  She is also on the Executive Board of the AALS Dispute Resolution Section.

Other professional activities have included participation as a member of the Advisory Group to the United States Delegation to the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments and membership on Second Circuit Committees. 

In addition to her bar and professional association activities, Professor Ward is a practicing mediator who currently serves as a pro bono mediator in federal district court.  She has previously done pro bono state court mediations as well.  

She teaches and writes primarily in the areas of federal civil procedure and court process.  Professor Ward teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, International Litigation Procedure, Federal Practice, Torts, and Introduction to Law and the Legal Profession.