His father was a member of the United States Public Health Service and while posted in Burma, Carley attended the eighth and ninth grades at the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, from 1951 to 1953.
[4] Carley was admitted to the bar in 1961 and for three months served in the title department at the Atlanta law firm of Hansell, Post, Brandon & Dorsey before quitting and returning to Decatur, where he practiced from 1963 until becoming a judge in 1979.
[2][3] He was briefly an attorney for the U.S. Public Housing Administration before leaving to start a solo practice that grew into a larger law firm.
[3] Carley served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1966 and in 1971 became a partner with the Decatur firm of McCurdy & Candler.
[2] He represented the Housing Authority of the City of Decatur and also served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Georgia Department of Transportation, handling eminent domain cases.
[7] Carley officially delivered his resignation to Deal on February 3, 2012, announcing his retirement effective July 17.
At his investiture, all six living former chief justices were in attendance: Hunstein, Robert Benham, Harold Clarke, Norman Fletcher, Willis Hunt and Leah Ward Sears.
[9] Prior to retiring, Carley stated that he hoped to become a private mediator or arbitrator or a senior trial judge after leaving the Court.
His jurisprudence emphasized judicial deference to the legislature; for example, in 1998 he was the lone dissenter in a 6–1 decision striking down the state sodomy law.
[3] He was described as "quintessentially old school" and almost never appeared in public without his "signature attire" of a coat and tie, which he wore even while riding a mule in the Grand Canyon.