Kenneth S. Broun was admitted to practice in Illinois in 1963 and in North Carolina in 1976. He served as associate, Jenner and Block, Chicago, Illinois from 1963 to 1968; lecturer in law, Loyola University from 1966 to 1967; visiting assistant professor of law at the University of North Carolina from 1968 to 1969; associate professor of law from 1969 to 1973; and professor of law from 1973 to 1989. He was a visiting professor of law at the University of Texas in 1972, at the University of Illinois from 1973 to 1974, at Notre Dame Law School, England, in 1984 and at the University of San Diego School of Law in 1998. He has been Henry Brandis Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law since 1990.
Broun was director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy from 1976 to 1979. He served as dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law from 1979 to 1987; as counsel, Petree Stockton, Raleigh, North Carolina from 1988 to 1989; and as chairman, Board of Trustees, National Institute for Trial Advocacy in 1991. He served on the NITA Board from 1980 through 2005.
He has been coordinator and faculty member, Trial Advocacy Training Programs, Black Lawyers Association of South Africa since 1986. He was a member of the Federal Rules Advisory Committee from 1993 through 1999 and now serves as a consultant to that committee.
Broun was the mayor of the Town of Chapel Hill from 1991 to 1995. Broun has been an author of various editions of McCormick, Evidence, the Broun, Mosteller Giannelli Evidence casebook, the Broun, Mosteller, Bilionis Evidence Problem Book, and Broun and Blakey Evidence Black Letter. He is now the general editor of the McCormick hornbook, now in its sixth edition. He is also the author of Brandis & Broun, North Carolina Evidence, now in its sixth Edition. He is the author of Black Lawyers, White Courts, published in 2000 -- an oral history of the black lawyers of South Africa. Broun currently teaches evidence and ethics for litigators.