Hon. Anita Earls

Justice Anita Earls currently serves as the Senior Associate Justice on the North Carolina
Supreme Court. Her professional background combines over thirty years of high-stakes civil
rights litigation with more than seven years of direct judicial experience. She has participated in
hundreds of cases on the bench and has authored numerous major constitutional opinions
across civil, criminal, and regulatory matters.

Before serving on the Court, Earls spent three decades trying civil and criminal cases in state
and federal courts. She began her career as an associate and then partner at the Ferguson
Stein law firm in Charlotte, practicing civil rights, criminal defense, and employment law
alongside legends Julius Chambers and James Ferguson. She later served as Deputy Assistant
Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President
Clinton, where she oversaw the Voting, Coordination and Review, Educational Opportunities,
and Disability Rights sections. Following her federal service, Earls directed the Voting Rights
Project for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, served as Director of Advocacy at the UNC Center for Civil Rights, and in 2007 founded and directed the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Her extensive litigation experience includes over thirty federal cases at the trial level, trials
before Superior Court juries on serious felony charges, appellate arguments in state courts and
in the First, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits. She also served as a member of the North Carolina
State Board of Elections and as Secretary of the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice
Commission. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Duke University and currently teaches
as an adjunct at the UNC School of Law. She lives in Durham with her husband and has two
children and three grandchildren.