[1] Dever was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1987 to 1988.

He served in the United States Air Force as a member of the General Counsel Honors Program from 1988 to 1992.

Dever has also served as an adjunct professor at the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University since 1997.

Dever served as a United States magistrate judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 2004 to 2005.

[3] In 2020, Dever heard arguments from a group of pastors who challenged Governor Roy Cooper on his authority to restrict religious activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.