I graduated from Georgia Military Academy in College Park, Georgia, in 1966 and entered the University of Virginia in the fall of that year. I have a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from UVA (’70) and was president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society and was elected to the student council at the end of my third year. After living and working in San Diego in 1970-71, I traveled in Europe and lived and worked in Atlanta before entering the Walter F. George School of Law of Mercer University in the fall of 1972. In 1975, immediately after obtaining my J.D. degree and passing the State Bar exam, I hung out a shingle in Zebulon, a small town 50 miles due south of Atlanta. For years I had a general practice that included a lot of real estate work. Eventually I was primarily doing domestic relations and criminal law. I semi-retired five years ago.
During my years of practice I handled several intellectual property, transactional and corporate matters, most memorably one involving the acquisition of a patent for a client. I also represented the Libertarian Party and other new political parties on a score of cases in federal court. The most notable case was one in which I was the lead plaintiff. Objecting to a Georgia law requiring drug testing of candidates for public office, I filed suit in the Northern District court in Atlanta and personally took the case up to the Eleventh Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. On January 14, 1977, I argued the case (Chandler v. Miller [96-126], 520 U.S. 305 [1997]) before the court. I won it in an 8-1 decision.
My other pursuits and interests through the years have included playing and coaching soccer, being a volunteer fireman in Pike County, working with the Boy Scouts, chairing the Zebulon Downtown Development Authority, horseback riding, travel, renovating buildings, bagpiping, and writing.
In 1997 I published the novel, "The Evangeline Manuscript." I have also published a book of poetry, "The Gift," in 2007. I have several other books “in the works.” I am a member of the Burns Club of Atlanta and the Pike County Kiwanis. I play soccer and ultimate (Frisbee) regularly, and ski. As a candidate of the Libertarian Party, I ran for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 1990 and ’94 and attorney general in ’98.
In July I was granted a patent on a unique multi-purpose small boat assembly. I am now in the stage of getting quotes for production from injection-molding companies.
I speak Spanish (but not fluently) as well as some Swedish and what is left of some Russian I began studying at Virginia.
My wife, Ruth, is a 1970 graduate of Agnes Scott College in economics.
My daughter, Canada Gordon, [See: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0330062/] lives with her architect husband in Eagle Rock, California, and works in the film and TV industry, primarily in art departments/production.
My older son, Zebulon, is an entertainment law attorney. He and I practice law together in Atlanta under the name Chandler and Chandler
