‘I Still Love the Game’

It was only last year that 32-year-old Julian Camper set aside his dreams of playing professional basketball.

A burly 6-4, 260-pound power forward/center who starred for the Division II Cal State San Marcos Cougars as a full-scholarship senior in 2015, Camper has spent the last decade playing pickup basketball in his hometown of San Diego, with regular summer forays to Los Angeles for the legendary pro-am Drew League. There, he’s competed against semipros and pros like the Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan. “When DeMar came, I had to guard him, and I ended up on a mixtape that’s circling around YouTube. … LeBron played in the game right after me.”

For a time, Camper considered playing pro ball in Germany, but ultimately decided to focus his energies on California Western School of Law.

“I still love the game,” says Camper, “But now I’ve at least gotten to the point where I’m just like, ‘Hey, I understand that [playing in the NBA] is not going to happen.’ I’ve accepted that, but I’ll be honest with you, this was only maybe a year ago.”

He still works out five days a week, sometimes with his wife, Autumn. For a time, his pickup games often dovetailed with the personal injury, employment lit and civil rights work he did as a solo practitioner—before he joined Sanders Roberts in 2023. “Since law school I’ve been doing that,” he says. “It’s helped me evolve from not just talking about, ‘Hey, you know, I played,’ to ‘Trust me, I’m a lawyer.’”

The pickup games took a brief hiatus during the COVID pandemic. “I got my license in January of 2020, right when it started, and that was discouraging,” he says. “But once you get through law school you can get through anything.

“I knew I wanted to help in some capacity,” he adds. “I wanted to serve, and I felt like my purpose would be to help others, individuals or businesses, helping folks to at least be on the right side of things and making sure people’s rights weren’t being violated. [Civil rights law] inspires me more than anything, because when you get a job you want to have a purpose, right? For me, I’m going to aspire to making sure there’s justice, and that keeps me going and allows me to sleep at night.”

“Ball is life” has become a mantra for hoopers of all stripes, and for Camper, one of five sons born to Jacquelyn Gainer and Vincent Camper, it also translates to his law practice.

“I think the competitive drive I have for basketball helps,” he says. “Even to this day, I just keep going to the point where I refuse to quit.”

Camper is the first attorney in his family. “My grandfather, he’s a pastor, and he wanted to pursue law and he would speak to me about that,” Camper says. Plus Camper was never shy about expressing opinions. “People would say, ‘You’re gonna be a lawyer one day.’” The pickup games continue, but it’s a little different with three kids. “When I get home from work,” he says, “from the moment I walk in the door, they’re climbing on top of my shoulders.”

Camper’s Collegiate Stats