In his choice of the law as a profession he was guided by the advice of his tutor, Dr Stephen Sandes, afterwards Bishop of Cashel, and by the future High Court judge Charles Burton.
In 1844 he unsuccessfully defended Sir John Grey, one of the traversers in the celebrated state prosecution of that year, by which Daniel O'Connell's influence with the Irish people was destroyed.
Thereupon the Lord Chief Justice, Edward Pennefather, suspended the proceedings, in order to afford the parties time for reflection, observing that "the Attorney-General is the last man in his profession who ought to have allowed himself to be betrayed into such an expression of feeling as has been stated to have taken place".
He published in 1868 a work entitled Ireland in 1868, the Battle Field for English Party Strife; its Grievances real and fictitious; Remedies abortive or mischievous, octavo.
A second edition of the original work also appeared in the course of the year, with an additional chapter on the land question, in which stress is laid on the duties of landowners.
The principal feature of his plan of reform was that fixity of tenure (one of the key political demands of the day) should be granted to the Irish tenant farmer, conditionally upon his executing improvements to his property to the satisfaction of a public official appointed for the purpose.
As an advocate, he enjoyed a high reputation for patient and methodical industry, indefatigable energy, and great determination, combined with a very delicate sense of honour.
Eloquently, but in vain, he argued of the dangers of cutting off every road to the Bench other than the House of Commons, and warned that this would result in the appointment of men who had either lost their legal practice, or had never had any.