[6][7] After graduation he worked as a superintendent of schools in Catlettsburg, Kentucky then resigned to pursuit law studies.
Hager became a prominent criminal lawyer in Ashland, Kentucky and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, working across several other state boundaries.
Immediately after becoming Mayor of Ashland he reached out to neighboring cities across state lines, such as Portsmouth, Ohio, to forge closer relationships.
[20] In 1933, he became the fifth person to be elected president of the Kentucky Municipal League, succeeding City Manager Paul Morton of Lexington.
[2] Hager, who had previously served as vice president of the league under Paul Morton,[2] started his term on January 1 of 1934.
Hager was succeeded as president of the Kentucky Municipal League by (also Democrat) Mayor Edward G. Scott of Paducah.
[16] One of the most accomplished and cultured men that ever graced the Kentucky bar, Edgar Browne Hager, of Ashland, Boyd county, has won distinguished prestige during his professional career, his vigorous mentality, scholarly attainments and comprehensive knowledge of the law winning for him an enviable record.