[2] He was admitted to the bar in 1949 and practiced in Arlington and Fairfax from 1951 to 1967 when he was appointed as a judge for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Virginia.
In early 1982, he was elected to the Supreme Court of Virginia, effective March 1, 1982.
Russell retired in 1991, though on January 1, 2004, he returned to service on the court as a Senior Justice.
[3] Russell gained notoriety in 1979 when he refused to follow a jury recommendation to give a convicted rapist a six-year prison sentence, giving him probation and offering to write a letter on his behalf.
[4] He is a member of both Omicron Delta Kappa and the Raven Society.