[2][3] The son of Alexander H. Higgins of Worcester, Pearce Higgins was educated at the King's School, Worcester (1876–82[4]) and Downing College, Cambridge (matriculated 1888, Winchester Prize 1891, graduated BA and LL.B.
[3] He was admitted as a solicitor in 1899, called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1908 and made King's Counsel in 1919.
[5] Teaching public international law at Cambridge from 1902,[6] Pearce Higgins was named a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1908 (replacing L. F. L. Oppenheim[7]).
During World War I, he served as an adviser in international law and prize law to Sir John Mellor, the Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor (head of the government legal service).
[5] Pearce Higgins was an Associate of the Institut de Droit International from 1922, a Member from 1924, and President from 1929 to 1931.