Julius L. Chambers graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1962, first in his class of 100. He served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif and Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest honorary societies at the university. He taught at Columbia University School of Law while earning his master of law degree in 1964.
In June 1964, Chambers opened his law practice in a cold-water walkup on East Trade Street in Charlotte. This one-person law practice eventually became the first integrated law firm in North Carolina. In its first decade, the firm did more to influence evolving federal civil rights law than any other private law practice in the United States. Chambers and his founding partners, James E. Ferguson, II and Adam Stein, working with lawyers of the LDF, successfully litigated civil rights cases and helped shape the contours of civil rights law by winning landmark United States Supreme Court rulings in such cases as Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971), the famous school busing decision, and Griggs v. Duke Power Co. 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971) and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405 (1975), two of the Supreme Court's most significant Title VII employment discrimination decisions.
Chambers has authored: "Beyond Affirmative Action," Capital University law 37.1 (1998); 1-2; Race and Equality: The Still Unfinished Business of the Warren Court," The Warren Court: A Retrospective, Ed. Bernard Schwartz, New York, Oxford University Press, 1996: 26-27; "Afterward: Racial Equity and Full Citizenship, The Unfinished Agenda," African Americans and the Living Constitution, Eds. John Hope Franklin and Genna Rae McNeil, Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996: 319-325; "Black Americans and the Courts: Has the Clock Been Turned Back Permanently?" The State of Black America, 1990, New York: National Urban League, Inc. 1990: 9-24; "Adequate Education for All: A Right, An Achievable Goal," Harv. Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 22.1 (1987): 55-74.
Chambers has served as adjunct professor at the University of Virginia Law School, 1975-1978; the University of Pennsylvania, 1978-1986; Columbia University Law School, 1984-1992; and the University of Michigan Law School, 1985-1992.
In 1984, Chambers left the law firm to become director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City. He was the third director-counsel of the LDF, following Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg. At the LDF, he became the field marshall for 24 staff attorneys and approximately 400 cooperating attorneys around the nation. LDF has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and maintains an active caseload of more than 1,000 cases, covering such areas as education, voting rights, capital punishment, employment, housing and prisons. Under his leadership, the LDF became the first line of defense against the political assault on civil rights legislation and affirmative action programs that began in the 1970s and 1980s.
He returned to North Carolina in 1993 to become chancellor of North Carolina Central University, his alma mater. Under his leadership, the university launched a $50 million capital fundraising campaign and established its first ten endowed chairs, including the one-million-dollar Charles Hamilton Houston Chair at the School of Law.
In 1995, Chambers was one of three lawyers who argued Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899, 116 S.Ct. 1894, 135 L.Ed.2d 207 (1996) (argued December 5, 1995), the landmark legislative redistricting case before the Supreme Court. This case forced the Court to decide the constitutionality of two N.C. congressional districts that were redrawn after the 1990 census according to provisions in the 1965 Voting Rights Act to ensure equitable minority representation. In the most recent ruling in this case (Hunt v. Cromartie), 526 U.S. 541, 119 S.Ct. 1545, 143 L.Ed.2d 731 (1999), the Supreme Court sustained two congressional districts which have enabled N.C. to elect its first congressional representatives since Reconstruction.
Chambers retired from his position as chancellor of North Carolina Central University on June 30, 2001, and reentered private law practice with the firm where his work includes business matters, employment discrimination, education and civil rights.