Meet the Dellingers

Hampton and his wife, Jolynn, were married in Asheville in 1994. They now live in Durham with their two children, Jackson and Austen Grace.

For generations, the Dellinger family has been devoted to North Carolina and service to others.

Hampton's mother, Anne Dellinger, spent more than 30 years assisting local officials across North Carolina as a faculty member at the UNC School of Government. His father, Walter, was born and raised in Charlotte, and served as a top Justice Department official in the Clinton Administration. Dellinger's aunts, Barbara Dellinger and Pam Swinney, are lifelong North Carolinians. Barbara oversaw a Head Start program for decades. Pam is a small business owner and artisan. Hampton's brother, Drew Dellinger, is a college professor.

Jolynn, a graduate of Duke Law School, has served as a judicial staff attorney and is now working in the area of privacy law. She grew up in Western North Carolina and was crowned Miss Asheville in 1987. Jolynn's mother, Jan Bryant, served as Transylvania's county manager, as a County Commissioner, and as Director of Governor Hunt's Western Office.

Hampton went from North Carolina's public schools to a public university and then to Yale Law School. In top posts in the Governor's Office (Chief Legal Counsel) and the Department of Justice (Deputy Attorney General and Special Counsel), Hampton promoted public safety, public health and public integrity. He has also challenged governmental decisions that waste taxpayers’ money or imperil the clean air, safe water, and scenic beauty that is every North Carolinian’s birthright.

Hampton Dellinger's public and private sector work includes:

• Successfully challenging a state agency's decision to award the entire state government office supplies contract to a higher-priced bidder with financial ties to the agency's consultant. [Read full...]
• Assisting with the judicial selection process that resulted in the appointment by Gov. Easley of, among others, G.K. Butterfield and Wanda Bryant to the appellate courts and the appointment of North Carolina's first Hispanic Superior Court judge, Albert Diaz.
• Aiding negotiations between bus drivers at the Charlotte Area Transit System and a private management company to keep the city’s transit system operating.
• Working for the NAACP at the Baltimore headquarters as part of the organization's successful effort to solidify its finances and install new leadership in the mid 1990s.
• Serving as Recording-Secretary of the NC Business Laws and the Economy Commission and as a Member of the NC Governor's Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs.
• Volunteer teaching at Wilbur Cross High School (New Haven, CT) during law school.

Hampton Dellinger's publications include:

• Harvard Law Review, "Words Are Enough: The Troublesome Use of Photographs, Maps, and Other Images in Supreme Court Opinions" (1997) Read excerpt
• Reconstruction, Muhammad Ali: The Boxer as Dissident (1994) Read excerpt