Charles Daye, a native of Durham, N.C., began his career as an associate with the firm of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood in New York City. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Harry Phillips, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, becoming the first African American to serve as a law clerk in that circuit.
After the clerkship, Daye practiced as an associate with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. He joined the law faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1972 where he was the first African American to hold a tenure-track position on the law faculty. In 1981, Daye was named dean of North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he served until 1985. He then rejoined the UNC-Chapel Hill law faculty, and teaches torts, housing and community development and administrative process and advocacy.
Daye is co-author of a course book, Housing and Community Development, now in its Fourth Edition, (with J. Kushner, P. Salsich, H. McGee, D. Keating, B. Bezdek, O. Hetzel, D. Mandelker, and R Washburn) and is co-author of North Carolina Law of Torts (with Prof. Mark Morris of the NCCU School of Law). In addition, he has published articles, essays, book reviews, and monographs on a variety of subjects including housing, state administrative procedure, torts, constitutional law, ethics in law school admissions, affirmative action, and academic support programs. Currently, he serves as deputy director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, as chair of the University's Committee on Scholarships and Student Aid and as chair of the University's Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board.
Daye has served several nonprofit and public service organizations. He served as president of the Law School Admission Council (1991-93) and on the board of governors and as vice president for legal affairs of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (2002-08). He is a member of the board of directors, after serving sixteen years as president, of Triangle Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization that operates federally subsidized housing for low income rural elderly. He is a member of the board of the Center for Community Self Help.He has chaired or served on numerous committees of professional organizations, including committees of the Association of American Law Schools, the American Bar Association, the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers (which he served as Executive Secretary for twenty years (1979 -1999).
Suffolk University in Boston, MA, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1999. He has been admitted to the bars of New York (inactive), District of Columbia (inactive), North Carolina, and the United States Supreme Court.